Revixit
by Charlie Hayden
Summary: Inspired by the season six opener of Buffy. Sirius finds an obscure book in his mother's things when he returns to 12 Grimmauld Place and decides to raise Lily and James from the grave. However, he finds that they can never go back to the way it used to be. Lily and James fic.
1. And so it begins

**A/N:** _This chapter is unbetaed so forgive any grammar mistakes. _

* * *

Professor Trelawney carefully poured the tea into two cups, the bangles on her wrists chiming with her every movement. She arranged her shawl carefully over herself before taking a seat on the pouf.

"I thank you for your hospitality Sybill," Dumbledore said as he took his offered cup of tea.

"It is my pleasure, Headmaster. My inner eye has informed me of your visit," Trelawney said.

"Yes, yes, I am sure," Dumbledore said as he took a sip. "It is so rare that I get a moment to myself these days. Alas, I'm afraid that we are about to head into terrible times," he began.

"The dark lord. Yes, my inner eye informs me of these things," Trelawney said in a misty voice. "Terrible things will happen. I fear that Mr. Potter is in grave danger. I tell him so often but I'm afraid that he does not take my warnings into consideration," she said.

"I fear as much myself," Dumbledore agreed.

"I sense that you have come to seek my expertise. You want to know what lies ahead," Trelawney said.

"I must act accordingly when the time comes. But that is not why I am here, I'm afraid. It seems as though the minister may want to interfere with Hogwarts. I want to inform my staff that their positions might be challenged and to be prepared. We must all be vigilant," Dumbledore told her.

"The minister may regret his actions," Trelawny said.

"I concur, but that is neither here nor now," Dumbledore said as he watched her carefully.

Trelawny nodded as she set her teacup down. And it happened quite suddenly. Her body shook and she drew ragged breaths as her eyes glazed over. "They will rise again. As the new moon rises in the sixth month, the willingly slaughtered at the hands of the dark lord will return to the one who needs them. They will rise again and their power will be unmatched. They will rise with the power the dark lord cannot touch or conceive and the dark lord will falter at their hands," she said in a ragged voice before suddenly the trance was over.

Trelawny rubbed her throat. "I'm sorry, but did you say something?" she asked, unaware of what had just happened.

Dumbledore held a thoughtful expression. "Just that we must focus on what is happening now and not put too much focus on what the future will bring," he said.

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the future," Trelawny warned mistily.

"Nor would I," Dumbledore said as he considered her prediction.

* * *

It had taken Sirius over a week to reach Remus' old family cottage. Unable to apparate or use any other means of magical transportation without being detected by the ministry, Sirius was forced to fly Buckbeak under the safety of night from Hogwarts and to Devon where Remus lived in seclusion. But once he had arrived, he patted Buckbeak's feathered neck. "Go find yourself something to eat, my friend," he told the beast before entering Remus' kitchen door.

"Moony? Are you alone?" he hissed, keeping himself in the shadows.

"Padfoot, I expected you a week ago!" Remus hissed as he came into the kitchen. "No, I'm not alone but it's safe for you to reveal yourself," he answered.

"Who's here?" Sirius demanded.

"Mad Eye, Mrs. Figg, Molly and Arthur Weasley, we were just discussing how Harry is doing," Remus informed him.

Concern clouded Sirius' expression. "How is he?" he asked worriedly. "When I left Hogwarts he begged me to stay."

"He's doing well, considering. Harry is a very resilient young wizard. I've known that for a while," Remus informed him.

"James would be so proud of him," Sirius noted sadly. "He and Lily should be here with him," he stated bitterly as he took a seat at the kitchen table. "Go finish your little meeting. I have no desire to hear anyone scream at the sight of me," he said.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Have something to eat while you're at it. You look like you've been living off of rats," he told him.

"They're not nearly that disgusting if you season them right," Sirius told him seriously.

Remus gawked at him. "Tell me you're joking," he said in alarm.

"I wish that I could," Sirius said solemnly.

"In that case, I implore you to eat me out of house and home," Remus stated.

"That means a lot, old friend," Sirius told him gratefully.

It was fifteen minutes later that Remus returned to the kitchen to the sight of food covering his table and Sirius devouring it all like a famished dog. "I didn't mean for you to eat me out of house and home literally," he said.

"They gone?" Sirius gruffed through a leg of lamb.

"Yes, they're gone. Now tell me everything that happened. I know Harry told you what happened in the graveyard so tell me," Remus told him.

Sirius set down the leg of lamb and looked his friend in the eye, all traces of humor gone from his face. "Alright," he said and proceeded to recount every detail of Harry's story and of the discover of Barty Crouch Jr impersonating Moody in order to manipulate things and that of Fudge's reaction to Voldemort's return. When he had finished, Remus stared at him thoughtfully.

Remus ran a hand through his hair, in much the same manner that James used to. When he realized what he was doing he dropped his hand to the table and looked away.

"Funny how he's been dead for thirteen years and he still has a way of rubbing his bad habits off on us," Sirius stated sadly.

"It goes to show just how important he was to us," Remus agreed both sadly and fondly. "James was the first true friend I ever had. He never abandoned me even when he found out about my..."

"Furry little problem as he dubbed it," Sirius finished and then chuckled. "He made it sound as though you had an evil pet rabbit," he finished.

"Oh I remember," Remus said, laughing.

The two friends fell into a comfortable silence until Sirius broke it. "If it weren't for James, I would be dead," he said quietly.

Remus looked at him sharply, sensing where this was going. "He never told me how you came to live with him," he stated.

"I asked him not to. I didn't want anyone to know," Sirius admitted.

"Sirius, what happened all those years ago?" Remus asked.

Sirius looked out through the window, a haunted look in his eyes as he was staring into the past. "Walburga tried to kill me. She used the reductor curse on my back when I turned away because I had dared to call Voldemort an abomination that would lead our world into destruction. She then proceeded to use the cruciatus curse and just before she was about to use the killing curse on me I managed to defend myself somehow and disarmed her. In that split second, I knew that I had to get out of there. So I apparated to James' sitting room, splinching myself terribly in the process. James saved my life that night. He was horrified by what had happened. It took me all summer to recover and I didn't even speak for weeks. I just laid in bed, staring into space. I've never been able to forget what she did to me that night, it's haunted me ever since. And the dementors, they forced me to relive it in vivid detail the entire time I was in Azkaban," he disclosed.

Remus was horrified by what his friend had just confided in him and didn't know what he could do to ease his friends mind.

However, an audible gasp broke the silent reverie and both men turned to the source, seeing for the first time that Andromeda, Sirius' cousin, had been standing there.

Andromeda took a tentative step toward her cousin and reached out a hand to him. "How could she? Sirius, my dear cousin," she cried.

Sirius remained rooted to his spot as he stared at her. It was, perhaps, the first time he had been in Andromeda's presence since he was seventeen and he had just finished his seventh year at Hogwarts. Andromeda had taken it upon herself to throw him a celebration dinner which comprised of his friends, the Potters, and surprising enough his uncle Alphard. Sirius had spent the majority of the day playing with a then four-year-old Nymphadora. Nymphadora would be twenty-two now and it was doubtful she would remember him. Sirius knew nothing of what his favorite cousin thought of him now, so he stared at her apprehensively, his eyes darting to the different points of entry into the house as though he expected aurors to show up or worse, the dementors.

"Andromeda, please tell him you're not going to turn him in or else he'll take off at any minute," Remus stated.

Andromeda blinked. "Why would I turn him in?" she asked Remus.

"Because I'm a wanted criminal," Sirius stated, finally speaking.

"You're innocent!" Andromeda cried.

Sirius was taken aback. "You believe I'm innocent?" he asked.

"Of course I do! I've never doubted you for a second," Andromeda said fiercely.

Wordlessly, Sirius bounded up and embraced her tightly. "Thank you!" he said with tremendous relief. "You have no idea what that means to me."

Andromeda returned the embrace. "I could never understand how anyone could think you were a death eater. You've held such a deep seeded hatred towards the dark arts. No one could ever figure out why you would get so irrational when the dark arts became involved in anything." she wiped away some tears and looked Sirius in the eye. "Now I know why and it grieves me so to think of how you've suffered," she told him.

"My suffering is little compared to what Harry has been through," Sirius told her and reclaimed his seat. "Dumbledore wants us to start recruiting what remains of the order and new members so that we can fight Voldemort. With the minister refusing to accept that Voldemort has returned, it's up to us to continue our part in the war," he said, getting down to business.

"We'll need a base," Remus stated.

"I've already offered Grimmauld place for that purpose. I've discussed it with Dumbledore before I left," Sirius said.

"Are you sure that you want to go back there," Andromeda asked, taking his hand supportingly.

"I have to do something useful," Sirius said. "Which reminds me. I'll have to makes sure it is ready for the order to move in."

"We can go with you," Remus offered.

"No," Sirius said. "This is something I need to do myself."

* * *

The House was a ghost of its former self. What was once a proud and noble house now lay dead and decayed. It was not as Sirius had left it so many years before and he knew that it had only come to this after old Walburga had died. Where was Kreacher? Did his mother finally hack his head off and stick it upon the wall too? Surely the elf's devotion to the Black family would have kept him from abandoning his post and leaving the house to rot; not while Sirius was alive, the elf wouldn't dare. But Sirius could care less about this house, it was just a means to achieve the goals of the Order. Once Voldemort was destroyed, Sirius would be more than happy to burn the entire place to the ground.

Sirius had flown Buckbeak into the square across the street from the house and, under the tattered cloak Remus had lent him, transfigured into a dog and trotted up to the front door, opening it with a paw, Buckbeak dutifully following. Once safely inside, Sirius transformed into his natural form and took a look around, inspecting every corner.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "I'm home," very ominously. As he walked through the house, his own screams of torment and his mother's raging voice echoed in his mind as if that terrible night was just the night before.

It was not long after he had been sent to Azkaban that he learned that his mother had died alone in the family home. An official of the ministry had informed him thusly and Sirius had disturbed the man with his cool detachment upon the news. For him, the news had been a happy moment in a place of torment. He remembered that moment well when a portly wizard with a grey mustache and wearing a brown tweed suit approached his cell cautiously.

_"Mr. Black?" the man quirred._

_"What?" Sirius demanded from his position by the barred window._

_"The ministry regrets to inform you of some very tragic news," the wizard said._

_"Tragic is having your best friend and his wife murdered because of something you did and being sent here without a trial," Sirius stated bitterly. "What can be more tragic than that?" he demanded._

_"Your mother was found dead yesterday in your family home," the man informed him._

_Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Truly?" he inquired._

_"I'm afraid so," the wizard said._

_Sirius gave a bitter laugh. "At last the hag is dead!" he said laughingly. "Tell me," he said, approaching the bars that separated them. "How did she die? Was it terrible? Tell me she suffered." he asked eagerly._

_The other wizard looked deeply disturbed. "Apparently she was attempting some dark ritual which had backfired," he said._

_Sirius threw his head back and laughed maniacally. "Beautiful! Truly beautiful!" he laughed._

_The ministry wizard look quite shocked. "Aren't you the least bit upset that your mother is dead?" he questioned._

_"No, you see this is the most joyous news I've had since James died. I honestly thought I'd never laugh again," Sirius told him._

_"But she was your mother!" the wizard cried, stricken._

_A dark look overshadowed Sirius' face. "What kind of mother uses dark magic to torture her own son to death? If I hadn't escaped when I did, I would have died five years ago at her very hands," he said and then a look of pure torment haunted his eyes. "James brought me back to life when I ran to him for help. Now he's dead and I have nothing left in this world to live for," he said hollowly. Sinking to the floor as he held onto the bars. "He was more than my best friend, he was the only true family I had, the only one to have actually loved me. He was my brother." he said brokenly._

_The ministry wizard looked upon Sirius with pity. "I am sorry for your loss," he said as he put his hat back on. Sirius didn't even notice when he had left, too lost in his own dark thoughts of despair to even care._

As Sirius entered the kitchen, he was finally able to picture his mother's death, the way that wizard had described it. On the table was dusty cauldron still filled with the rotten black goo that was once a viable option, a rusty dagger, three books and three scrolls of parchment, one book laying open. A picture of Regulus and what remains of an altar of some sort lay arranged in the center of the table. A chair was turned over from where she must had fallen dead. Sirius knelt to pick it up when he found it. The unyielding blackthorn wand, still encrusted with the diamond serpent. Sirius snacthed up the wand and broke off the serpent, tossing it aside, and pocketing the wand.

"Lets see, Mother, what were you trying to do that killed you," he said with a smile. "It was the best thing you ever did, dying, I mean," he muttered as he took a seat and shuffled through the parchment and books. However it were two phrases in the open book that caught his eye: Cast of Resurrection and Priori Incantatem.

"Should a witch or wizard die a violent and unnatural death such as with the killing curse, their souls become trapped within the caster's wand unless such an event as when the wand would connect with its brother and priori incantatem is induced, forcing the souls of the caster's victims to be released. In this event, there is a small window of time in which their souls can be reunited with their bodies and their deaths reversed.." Sirius read aloud. His eyes flicked toward Regulus' picture and he finally understood. Walburga must have been tormented by Regulus' death to such an extent that she died trying to get him back. At long last he had his answer, his mother did suffer.

Suddenly his solitude was broken by a loud crack and something falling over in the entrance hall which was followed by the most terrifying screaming. Sirius raced up the stairs to see what was happening to find Dumbledore standing there. Sirius held a brief glance at the portrait behind the curtains. The subject was an old woman in a black cap, screaming as she were being tortured. The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed. But as her rolling eyes settled upon him, she screamed in a raging fury. ""Yoooou! Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!" Sirius knew instantly that it was Walburga and grew disturbed by how horrifying she looked in her portrait, while in life, she had been a great beauty.

With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore closed the curtains covering her portrait with ease and turned to him.

"Lovely woman, my mum. Sure she had an evil black heart, but once you overlooked that, you just had to love her," Sirius stated sarcastically.

"It's good to see that you've regained your biting wit," Dumbledore said.

"The dementors took my happiness, but they couldn't take my sense of humor," Sirius quipped and then frowned at his mother's portrait. "Strange. She was a great beauty, yet her portrait perfectly reflects the monster within."

"There are many things that can affect the way in which one's portrait depicts one after they have died," Dumbledore stated.

"This house used to be a sight to be seen, now it's in decay. But it'll do as headquarters I suppose," Sirius said as he looked around and kicked at a dust ball. "Can't imagine where that house elf has gotten to though."

"Perhaps your house elf will show up. In the meantime, we have fortifications to build and a fidelius charm to enact. But first, tell me what has already been placed upon this place," Dumbledore said.

"Of course," Sirius complied and led Dumbledore through the house as they began their work to turn the decrepit old house into a stronghold.

They finally finished in the kitchen where Dumbledore took note of the table. "I was told that this is where she died. Apparently she was trying to raise my brother from the grave and it instead killed her," Sirius explained, showing Dumbledore the book.

Dumbledore stared at the book that was handed to him in silence as he considered the implications. Finally he looked Sirius in the eye. "You understand that such magic is impossible," he cautioned.

"If I believed it was possible, I would have done so thirteen years ago," Sirius told him firmly.

"We cannot use magic to alter the natural order, Sirius," Dumbledore told him gently. "To do so would have grave consequences. I strongly advise you to forget about what is in this book because it would do you no good to dwell on it," he warned.

"I have no interest to alter the natural order of things," Sirius informed the headmaster and took a seat. "My mother was obviously out of her mind being the only Black left besides me. It must have tormented her to know that I would inherit everything upon her death despite her efforts to disown me."

Dumbledore eyed him suspiciously, not saying a word.

Sirius held up a hand. "I solemnly swear, upon my honor, that I will not use magic to alter the natural order. You have my word as a marauder," he vowed.

"Do see that you don't," Dumbledore stated, setting the book down. "Now, I must take my leave. I have work that must be done," he said.

"I'll see you at the first order meeting," Sirius said, offering the headmaster a smile.

"That shall be at the end of the week," Dumbledore told him and took his leave.

When Sirius was sure that he was gone, he took his other hand out from under the table where he held it with his fingers crossed. Turning his head to the side he yelled, "Kreature!"

A loud crack was heard and the depricit house elf appeared bowing low. "Kreature is bound to serve his master even though his master is a filthy blood traitor who broke his mother's poor heart. Oh the shame my mistress endured..."

"Oh do shut up!" Sirius snapped. The elf clamped his mouth shut and shot Sirius a look of pure hatred. "Clean this mess up and then go find me something to eat," he ordered. Pointing his mother's ward at the discarded book, he muttered, "Accio," and caught the book when it flew into his hand. "And then you can tell me all about this spell my mother was trying to cast when she died," he finished as he leafed through it.

* * *

It was not long before Remus flooed in and stepped out of the kitchen fireplace, trunk in hand. "I see that you've made yourself comfortable," he noted upon seeing Sirius so casual.

"What do you make of this, Moony?" Sirius asked, handing the book over and pointing to to the passage that had sparked his interest.

Remus read the passage and took a seat. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Sirius. "Please tell me that you are not giving this serious consideration," he said.

"What if it is possible?" Sirius asked, leaning forward.

"It's too risky, Sirius. We wouldn't have the first clue as to what we are doing," Remus told him.

Sirius looked him in the eye. "Are you telling me, that if we had the chance, that you wouldn't be willing to have James back?" he asked.

"I want our friend back just as much as you do, Sirius," Remus told him imploringly. "But to risk doing something like this and not being completely sure of what we are doing. It could end badly. Worse, we wouldn't be bringing our friend back, but a cross between our friend and inferi. As painful as it is that he is dead, to have him back and to have it gone wrong. I couldn't bear it," he finished.

Sirius nodded. "I suppose you're right," he said.

"Good. Then lets put this behind us and focus on what is here now," Remus stated.

"Glad that you agreed to move in here to keep me from going insane," Sirius stated sardonically.

"Well I'll do anything to keep a completely insane version of you from being unleashed upon the world," Remus stated.

"Cheers to that, Mate!" Sirius said, raising a half empty bottle of brandy.

Remus sighed. "Great, now I have to deal with you while you're drunk," he muttered.

"You can sleep in the room next to mine. Regulus is dead so he won't be needing it," Sirius said sportingly.

At that Kreacher threw himself upon the floor in a violent rage. "The halfbreed desecrating Master Regulus' room! Oh the shame! Oh the defilement. What would Mistress say? Disgrace. Filth! Oh what shame Master has brought upon the most Ancient House of Black!" he raged.

"Kreacher! That's enough of your vile! Go clean a room!" Sirius ordered.

Kreacher looked upon Sirius in pure loathing before he disappeared to do his bidding.

"Bloody elf," Sirius cursed and took another swig from the bottle.

"Getting yourself smashed isn't going to make being here any easier," Remus told him.

"Ha! Shows how much you know," Sirius said darkly.


	2. The Plan

**A/N**: _Yet another unbetaed chapter. You'll have to forgive me on this. But I had this written days ago and I've become a bit impatient to get it out so I didn't get it checked over for grammar mistakes. I also have the next chapter already written but I'm going to wait a bit to post it. _

* * *

"On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world." ― Henry David Thoreau

There are many realities in the universe, some of them quite harsh. One reality that is inescapable is that there is nothing more valuable than a friend. More than food, more than shelter, and more than weaponry, an ally can save your life. - Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars.

* * *

Sirius did not go to bed that night. He chose to, instead, debate with himself over which choice he should make. In her dying moment, Walburga Black had given the son she despised and never wanted his greatest gift and temptation. Sirius had in his possession a way to get back what had been ripped away from him so treacherously and so violently. To have James back would mean more than words alone could ever explain. When James died, the greatest part that had made Sirius whole had been ripped from him. Every day since that horrible night, Sirius lived in endless torment, unable to find that glimmer of hope nor that spark of happiness that had been invaluable to his very existence. They were two sides of the same coin, James and Sirius. James was everything that was good in the darkness that had threatened to swallow Sirius whole and without him, Sirius was lost.

But to alter the fabric of nature, to raise the dead; surely there would be an unprecedented price to pay. Walburga had died trying to raise Regulus from the dead and had nothing to show for it. The spell had not worked and Regulus was still dead. Sirius was all that was left of a dark lineage.

Sirius folded his hands together, rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, resting his chin atop his hands. The decision was not a light one to make. Sirius closed his eyes and remembered a vow.

_He had arrived at the cottage too late to warn Lily and James. Hagrid had emerged from the crumbling cottage with Harry in his arms. "No!" he screamed, jumping from his motorbike and then saw Harry move in Hagrid's arms. "Harry!" he cried, rushing over and reaching for his godson. He cradled Harry against his chest and sank to his knees, shaking in silent sobs as he rocked back and forth on his knees._

_"I have to take 'Arry to his aunt an' uncle," Hagrid told him._

_Sirius shook his head. "No," he said firmly. "I'm his godfather. I have to take him."_

_"I have me orders from Dumbledore," Hagrid told him. "Says 'Arry will be safer in Surry."_

_"He'll be safe with me," Sirius told him savagely. "I will stop at nothing to keep him safe," he vowed._

_"Dumbledore says that he'll be protected by the blood protection as long as he is with his aunt. But I'm sure that she will let you visit," Hagrid told him._

_As Sirius knelt there with Harry in his arms, he stared at the ruins that was made so lovingly into a home by Lily. He remembered how blissfully happy she and James were just the other day, how they laughed and teased each other and of how much they loved their son. He knew that he had no other option. "Be safe," he whispered to Harry. "You mum and dad loved you, don't ever forget that." He kissed Harry's temple and stood. He brushed his hand over Harry's soft black hair as he handed his godson over to Hagrid. "Take my motorbike, I won't be needing it anymore," he told Hagrid and soundlessly approached the house, entering the crumbling structure. He barely noticed when Hagrid had left because he had found James at the foot of the stairs, his hazel eyes which had sparkled in mischief were glazed over and sightless._

_The sight of his best friend and brother laying on the floor of his house dead was more than Sirius could bear. A part of his soul, his heart and his sanity had been ripped away from him and he screamed in anguish, howling savagely as he fell to his knees beside his fallen friend. With a shaky hand, he closed James' eyes and put his face in his hands. With James gone, he had no one left and nothing left to lose; he could trust no one. Sirius laid James' arms over his chest and held his cold hand in his. "I will make this right," he vowed, "Even if it is the last things I do. I will fix this."_

_Footsteps alerted Sirius that he was no longer alone and he drew his wand, still covering James' body as Remus came in through the door._

_"I hoped it was a mistake," Remus gasped, sinking against the wall._

_"Oh it was a mistake alright," Sirius said darkly. "A mistake that cost James his life."_

_"Why James?" Remus cried, moving forward, towards James' body._

_Sirius lept into action. "Get away from him!" Sirius roared, shoving Remus against the wall, his wand pointed at Remus' throat._

_Remus stared at him in shock. "Sirius?" he begged._

_"You have no place here, werewolf. Go back to where you belong," Sirius told him savagely._

_Remus gave him a stricken look of betrayal. "What have you done?" he gasped._

_Sirius let him go. "You're not even worth it," he said and walked out the door._

_Remus followed him. "Where are you going?" he demanded._

_"To kill a rat," Sirius stated menacingly before disappearing._

Sirius realized, as he remembered the vow he made over James' body that night, there really wasn't a choice to be made. He vowed to make things right and laying before him, open, Sirius knew he had found the key.

* * *

Remus was enjoying the best sleep he had in years in the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. He was not prepared, however, for a bunch of books to be thrown on top of him. Growling at the intruder in a very wolfish manner, he said, "Do you mind? I was trying to sleep."

"No time to sleep, not until we've finished," Sirius said as he ransacked Regulus' bookshelf.

Remus half sat up and stared at his friend in exasperation. "Finished what?" he asked tiredly.

Sirius turned to look him in the eye, no trace of mirth in him. "Resurrecting Lily and James," he informed him.

Remus' jaw dropped as he stared at Sirius in disbelief, however he quickly realized that his friend was not having fun at his expense. "What?" he shouted, jumping out of bed. "Are you insane?" he demanded.

"Completely," Sirius told him. "I haven't been sane in the past thirteen years. No, that was torn apart when I found James at the foot of his stairs dead. But now..." he held up a book, brandishing it. "Now I'm making good on a promise I made that night and, thanks to old Walburga, I finally have the tool to do so."

Remus stared at his friend. "You're mental if you think you can actually pull this off correctly," he told him.

"I'm just metal enough to do it, Moony," Sirius stated with a certain spark in his eye and left the room continuing through the house to find the objects that he will need.

Remus followed him. " I've always thought you were mad, but I never pictured you to be this insane. How exactly do you plan on raising the dead without a hitch?" he demanded.

"Truthfully, I don't think I could do it if Voldemort hadn't shown me the way," Sirius informed him as he plucked things off of shelves.

Remus tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know I'm going to regret asking this. How in Merlin's name did Voldemort show you the way?" he demanded.

Sirius turned to him and held the book in his face. "I stayed up all night reading this and I realized that the process is eerily similar to the method that Voldemort used to regenerate himself into a new body. When Harry's wand connected with Voldemort's he invoked priori incantatem and thus released James and Lily's souls. According to this, we have a small window to which we can reunite their souls with their bodies before they cross over. We just have to make a potion which is kind of tricky, pour it over their bodies and chant a few small words at an altar dedicated to them," he explained.

"There is just one problem with your simple method," Remus pointed out.

"And that would be?" Sirius asked.

"Neither one of us did that well in potions!" Remus reminded him.

"Minor setback!" Sirius insisted as he moved on.

Remus threw his arms up in the air in exasperation and continued to follow him. "You know, I really should know by now not to try to reason with an irrational person. But I really must be insane as well because I continue to do so over and over again expecting you to think things through rationally when that is never going to happen," he ranted.

"So, you'll help me?" Sirius asked.

Remus scoffed at himself. "Of course I'll help," he said and then shook his fists in aggravation. "What is this strange power you have over me? I am a sane, rational, and logical person. How is it that you drag me into one of your crazy schemes every single time you dream them up?" he demanded.

"As much as you resist it, Remus, you belong on the wild side, just as I do. Don't fight it, embrace it," Sirius said and snapped a book shut.

"And how, do you plan on making a complicated potion to perfection?" Remus asked.

"Why, Snivellus will brew it," Sirius stated confidently.

Remus just stared at him dumbfounded. "You really did go mad in Azkaban," he stated duly. "If you think for one minute that Severus is going to help us with this, then you've really gone mental."

"Snivellus will do it because he's always been hopelessly in love with Lily and he still owes James a life debt," Sirius told him simply.

Remus stared at him, taken aback. "Severus was in love with Lily?" he asked dumbfounded.

Sirius scoffed. "Of course he was. What do you think the entire rivalry between he and James was about?" he answered.

"I always thought it had to do with the fact that each tried to outdo the other," Remus told him.

"It was a war, Moony, to see who would win Lily in the end," Sirius told him flatly. "I think it worked out smashingly in the end because we got Harry out of it," he said with a smile.

"Well, Harry is a pretty special kid," Remus agreed.

"Yeah, he is," Sirius agreed. "I just hope that I live long enough to have a son just like him," he said sportingly.

"For all we know you might already have one and not know it," Remus quipped.

Sirius considered this and then adopted a wolfish grin. "I really did have a smashing sex life. I miss that," he said as he settled himself into an armchair in the parlor. The portrait of Orion Black hung over the mantel snoozing away.

"By smashing, do you mean sleeping with a different woman every single night?" Remus quipped as he too took a seat.

"Sometimes three a night," Sirius corrected.

"You do know that's how muggles spread certain diseases, right?" Remus deadpanned.

"Good thing we're not muggles then," Sirius joked.

"I hear that they have to insert a needle into the penis to rid themselves of one disease," Remus remarked.

"Where did you hear that?" Sirius asked.

"Some muggle told me. He also described some kind of anal probe," Remus answered.

"Muggle medicine can be so disturbing," Sirius stated lazily.

* * *

The first order meeting had been scheduled for Friday and in the time between, Remus and Sirius had developed a strategy and concocted a very detailed plan for operation return. The first meeting was comprised of the remainder of the original order a few new recruits. Remus was tasked with greeting everyone at the door and leading them to the dining room. Sirius had holed himself in the kitchen preparing for the order. He had dug out an old cloak that belonged to his father which could obscure his face so that he didn't cause an inordinate stir.

Feeling as though he needed to appear as a generous host and not as the wanted mass murderer people generally believed him to be, Sirius had found some old clothes in the attic in decent condition and tried them on even if they were outdated. He had managed to comb his hair and tie it back, unwilling to do much more. He had also decided to cook dinner.

By the time the order began to arrive, Sirius had the table set and took his place at the head of the table, keeping his face hidden beneath the cloak. As the order filed in and took their places, Sirius recognized many of the faces and frowned at some of the new faces. Dora had quickly signed up for the order and came in, spotting him at once, gave him a saucy wink and sat down at his right, Remus at his left. When a dark skinned auror came in, Sirius shot Remus a withering look, recognizing Kingsley Shacklebolt immediately. "You let him into my house? Do you have a death wish?" he hissed.

"He signed up to the order. Mad-Eye trusts him and so should we," Remus hissed back.

"Just who do you think you are fooling with that cloak, Sirius? We all know this is your house." Mad-Eye growled.

Sirius shot Mad-Eye a heated glare and glanced in Kingsley's direction.

Mad-Eye gruffed. "Just say that you're convinced he's innocent already, Kingsley, so Black over there can stop his growling," he said.

Kingsley glanced over at Sirius. He gave Sirius an evaluating look. "I'm more interested in learning how he escaped from Azkaban than I am in arresting him," he said.

"Never going to happen," Sirius said as he lowered his hood. "And don't think that you've found my current hiding place that I'm now going to be an easy target," he warned.

Kingsley smiled. "A fact that I find admirable," he admitted.

"You should all know that Sirius spent several hours to try to appear to be a decent host for this meeting. He even cooked this meal himself. However if anyone should find the need to check in at St. Mungos from food poisoning, we have an emergency portkey available," Remus said lightheartedly.

Sirius gave his friend an affronted look. "Food poisoning? If anything of the sort occurs then you tampered with it while my back was turned," he growled.

"Oh yes, Sirius, your skills in the kitchen are unmatched," Remus quipped.

"I'll have you know that it take great skill to turn a rat from a last resort edible substance into something quite pleasing," Sirius argued indignantly.

"we're not actually eating rat are we?"

"Why no, Emmaline, this is mutton. Compared to the rats that I've been living on for the past two years, this is a delicacy," Sirius said sarcastically with a glare towards Kingsley.

"Padfoot, be civil," Remus said sternly.

"I have a known enemy in my house. Forgive me, Moony, if being civil is a bit difficult," Sirius growled.

Tonks leaned closer to her cousin and grinned. "So, Sirius, Mum has some wild stories. Tell me, are any of them true?" she asked with a raised pink eyebrow.

Sirius looked at her. "What do you want to know?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I think we can save the stories for later, Sirius. I thank you for this lovely meal, but we really must get down to business," Dumbledore said.

"Certainly, Dumbledore," Sirius said pleasantly. "I think the first order of business is when I can have my godson," he stated pointedly.

" We've already discussed this topic, Sirius," Dumbledore told him.

"You discussed it, I disagree. I could care less about blood protections. My concern is for both Harry's safety and his happiness. As it stands the ideal place to accomplish that is for him to be somewhere safe with people who actually love him such as myself and Remus," Sirius told him.

"While Harry is with his aunt and uncle he is safest," Dumbledore told him firmly.

"Your idea of safety is different than mine. I know very well that a place with people who despise a child and treat him like vermin is not a safe environment," Sirius argued.

Dumbledore stared at Sirius very hard. "I believe that your personal feelings are clouding your rationality, Sirius," he said.

Sirius stood up and slammed his hands on the table, clattering the dishes. "He is my godson! He is James' son and I vowed to keep him safe!" He yelled.

Dumbledore rose as well. "I am not questioning your devotion to Harry, Sirius. However, I do ask that the next time you bring this matter up, that you have thought it through rationally," he said calmly, yet in a manner in which closed the subject.

"Yes, Black, try to keep yourself from acting irrationality. Or have you not learned anything from your time in Azkaban?" Snape said snidely.

Sirius pointed at Snape. "You know where the rat is holed up. Hand him over, I've got a special rat stew planned especially for him," Sirius growled.

"Sirius sit down!" Remus hissed, grabbing his sleeve and yanking him down.

Sirius took a deep breath to calm himself. Bending over, he produced a bottle of firewhiskey. "Continue this meeting without me," he said and proceeded to leave the room. On his way out he passed Mundungus Fletcher. "And keep your pilfering hands off of my property, Dung. Or I'll sick my crabby elf on you," he snapped.

Remus sighed heavily and looked to the rest of the order. "Forgive him. It's the house, it harbors a lot of bitter memories. Normally he is pleasant to be around. Ever since he came back here, he's taken to bouts of biting irritation and anger to silent depression," he excused.

Tonks was the first to speak following this. "So which room was it?" she asked.

Remus stared at her. "Pardon?"

"Which room was the one where Aunt Walburga tried to kill him?" Tonks asked. There was an audible gasp around the table at this question. Kingsley shared a look with Dumbledore who merely closed his eyes, having known what horrors had transpired in this house all along.

"I didn't ask and I prefer not to know. If you are that curious, you can ask him. But if you do, be prepared for whichever mood the subject calls upon," Remus stated.

* * *

It was midway through the meeting when Snape had excused himself to use the bathroom. This was a planned scenario since Sirius had laced his goblet with something that would induce the need quicker. As Snape finished washing his hands he looked up into the mirror and frowned. "Make any sudden move and you will not like the outcome," he sneered upon seeing Sirius standing behind him.

"I just want to talk," Sirius stated and took a swig of firewhiskey.

"I cannot fathom a scenario in which anything that you say would ever hold interest to me," Snape said coolly.

"I merely require your expertise. You were always unmatched in potions," Sirius told him.

"You want me to brew you a little potion?" Snape sneered.

"Name your price," Sirius offered.

"You have nothing that would hold any value to me," Snape told him.

"I want you to brew a Cast of Resurrection potion," Sirius told him bluntly.

"Out of the question," Snape said, turning to leave but Sirius blocked his path. "Get out of my way," Snape sneered, drawing his wand.

"I want to resurrect Lily and James," Sirius continued.

"And what makes you think that I would even consent to help you?" Snape demanded.

"Because you're still in love with Lily. Don't even think it was a secret, we all knew. Except for maybe Lily. But it was plainly obvious," Sirius disclosed and seeing the briefest flicker of surprise cross Snape's face. "And you still owe James a life debt. A debt which remains unfulfilled because he died. You know as well as I that a life debt can only be fulfilled if you save his life which you failed to do before he died," he finished.

"I owe Potter no life debt. He merely saved my life to save his own skin," Snape sneered.

"Oh, you are so wrong on that one," Sirius corrected him. "James was never in on my sending you into the shrieking shack. He was furious when I told him about. He and I didn't speak for a month because of it and he never did forgive me for it. Whatever you may think about James, know this Severus, it did not matter what his personal feelings were, he never wished death upon you. James was above that. I really could care less whether you lived or died, but James was too honorable to resort to such carelessness."

"I am unconvinced, Black, and if you do not get out of my way..."

"Think of Lily!" Sirius said suddenly, changing tactics. "Think about what it would be like if she was alive now. Think about what it would mean if she were alive again." Sirius eyed Snape closely and he could see that this was the trigger. "Think about her. Think about her last moment, the sheer terror she had to feel, Snape. Her husband murdered before her and Voldemort advancing, as she held her son close to her, trying to protect him in any way she could and knowing she was about to die. Wouldn't you want to make it right, to fix what had been done that night," he continued. " Wouldn't you want a second chance to fix things?"

"Enough," Snape suddenly said. "I'll do it," he finally agreed.

Sirius smiled triumphantly. "I'll need the potion as soon as possible," he said and left Snape alone.

* * *

Sirius sat in the kitchen drinking from the bottle of firewhiskey, casually leaning back in his seat on the back legs, his feet propped up on the table when Kingsley found him.

"Quite a place you have here," Kingsley said announcing his presence.

"It's my mother's house. I'd burn it down if it wasn't useful as headquarters," Sirius stated.

"Would that make a difference? Destroying the place that represents the person who hurt you the most." Kingsley asked.

"Burning it down would be amusing and symbolic," Sirius stated.

"You see me as a threat," Kingsley stated.

" You've spent two years hunting me," Sirius stated, looking at him.

"And you've shown skill in evading my team, I'm impressed," Kingsley said.

"I didn't kill those muggles or Peter Pettigrew. Peter killed them and faked his own death. I was just convenient to pin what he had done on. I did track him to kill him though," Sirius told him.

"Why?" Kingsley asked.

Sirius set his chair down and leaned forward. "Because he soled Lily and James to Voldemort. Because of him my true family is dead. I wanted vengeance and still do. Knowing what he also did to Harry not too long ago only fuels my hatred for him," he told him honestly.

"Dumbledore insists that you are innocence. I trust Dumbledore's judgement." Kingsley told him.

Sirius stared at him, evaluating him. "You believe him?" he wanted to know.

"I do," Kingsley answered.

"Dumbledore's word didn't count for anything a year ago," Sirius said.

"He wasn't the only one to convince me," Kingsley told him.

"Who else came to you?" Sirius asked.

"You have a faithful supporter in your cousin Andromeda. She has been coming to the ministry declaring your innocence. She has been to my office every day since you escaped, arguing your case," Kingsley informed him.

"Andromeda was always my favorite. She was the only one like me. Everyone else was obsessed with their pureblood mania. We never cared about any of that," Sirius stated fondly.

"You should know that I will be misdirecting the ministry's hunt for you. You're safe here so long as you're careful not to be spotted," Kingsley informed him.

"Thank you," Sirius said.

* * *

**A/N:  
**_I am currently in need of a Harry Potter beta so if anyone is interested in the job then just PM me. What I'm looking for is someone skilled with grammar who will give me their honest opinion on what I write. Someone that I can bounce ideas off of and help me decide what to include and what to leave out. Someone who will also help me stay in character while writing. _

_Chapter three will be uploaded sometime later this week. _


	3. Casting the Spell

**A/N**:_ I still have to fine a HP beta so forgive me if there are any grammar errors in this. _

* * *

"I don't think you should die until you're ready. Until you've wrung out every last bit of living you can." ― Libba Bray, Going Bovine

"Everything Dies. That is the law of life-the bitter unchangeable law" ― David Clement-Davies, Fell

* * *

Sirius and Remus had decided to do as much research on the Cast of Resurrection as possible before they actually pulled it off. Sirius had given Remus the key to his vault while Remus went out to buy some books that would help. They had temporarily turned the parlor into their place of operation. Sirius had taken claim to the best chair in the room. The chair had been his father's and no one save for Orion Black ever sat in it. Orion even sat in the chair in his portrait. Currently, Sirius was sitting in said chair, his back against the arm while his legs hung over the other as he read one of the books Remus had bought.

"Do you get the feeling that we're back at Hogwarts in Gryffindor common room doing homework?" Sirius asked lazily.

"It's more like when we were studying for you and James to become animagi," Remus corrected. "I don't recall you ever doing any homework," he jabbed in.

Sirius ignored the last comment and grinned. "That was fun. If we had done it legally we would have been on the record for being the youngest wizards to accomplish it," he said.

"Breaking rules and laws always amuses you, Padfoot," Remus said longsuffering.

Sirius closed his book and tossed it over his shoulder. "Nothing worthwhile in that one," he said and pointed his wand at the pile on the coffee table and used a summoning charm to call another book to him, lazily flipping it open.

"Do you think we should tell Dumbledore what we're doing?" Remus asked suddenly.

Sirius looked up at him. "No," he said flatly.

"We can't keep it a secret from him, he will find out," Remus pointed out.

"He'll find out after we've done it," Sirius told him, lazily flicking through his book.

"A part of me still feels as though we should tell him," Remus said as he changed books.

Sirius looked over at him. "Why? Do you need to have his blessing?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Remus said dismissively.

Sirius closed his book with a snap and gave his friend his full attention. "You're not having second thoughts are you? Because I will be doing this with or without you," he said firmly.

"I'm not having second thoughts," Remus told him. "I do however question the need for secrecy."

Sirius frowned as he remembered his conversation with Dumbledore on the subject and debated sharing this with Remus. He was, however, saved from answering when someone bounded into the parlor, knocking over a table covered in family photos and waking up the portrait of Orion Black.

"Watch what you're doing you clumsy child!" Orion snapped.

"Oh do shut up!" Sirius snapped at the portrait.

"You watch who you are speaking to, Sirius Orion Black!" Orion snapped.

"Sorry," Tonks said righting the table and moving to the photos.

"Just toss the photos, they don't mean anything," Sirius said as he and Remus tucked away their research.

"Toss the photos!" Orion spluttered outraged. Sirius pointed his wand at the portrait and muttered a silencing charm to keep it from yelling further.

"Whatchya doing?" Tonks asked, noting their movements.

"None of your business," Sirius said. "What are you doing here?" he asked righting himself in the chair.

"Mum wanted me to check up on you," Tonks said as she took a seat on the arm of Sirius's chair. "She sent a care package, it's in the hall," she said.

"And that reminds me," Sirius said as he got up. "I've got something to show you." and he left the room to retrieve it.

Tonks slid down from the arm of the chair to relax in the vacated arm chair, making herself at home.

"I wouldn't sit there if I were you," Remus said.

Tonks glanced at him. "Why not?" she asked.

"Because that is Sirius' seat," Remus told her as if that explained everything.

"So?" Tonks asked, raising a pink eyebrow.

"Suit yourself," Remus said as he relaxed into the couch. "But I did warn you."

Sirius came back into the room carrying a small book and pulling out a slip of what looked like paper. He stopped and stared at Tonks with narrowed eyes. "You're in my seat," he said evenly.

"It's just a chair," Tonks pointed out.

"It's my chair," Sirius told her.

"Everything in this house is yours," Tonks countered.

"Exactly. Now sit somewhere else," Sirius told her.

Tonks rolled her eyes as she took a seat beside Remus who just gave her an I-told-you-so look.

"I found this in one of the books Remus retrieved from my old flat and I thought you might like to see it," Sirius said as he handed Tonks an old photograph. It was taken in 1978 and was of an eighteen year old Sirius running around and playing with a four year old Tonks with color changing pigtails. "It was taken during the dinner your mum hosted for me when I finished Hogwarts," he explained.

Remus looked over Tonk's shoulder at the picture. "I remember that day. You completely ignored us because you were having too much fun playing with Nymphadora. Lily remarked that you would be an amazing father and James got a little nervous when she mentioned that she wanted to have four kids, he turned all blotchy and choked on his butterbeer," he said with a fond smile.

Tonks blinks and turned to glare at Remus. "Don't call me Nymphadora!" she growled.

Sirius grinned. "What's wrong with the name Nymphadora?" he asked.

"What's right about it?" Tonks countered. "I'd like to know what Mum was thinking when she foolishly named me that."

"I told her to name you Nymphadora. Because you looked like a little nymph when you were born," Sirius told her.

"So it was your doing?" Tonks glared.

Sirius grinned. "Afraid so," he said.

"Be grateful he didn't suggest any of the other names he started coming up with," Remus told her ominously.

"What could possibly be worse than Nymphadora?" Tonks demanded.

"You obviously don't know your cousin very well," Remus stated. "His sense of humor can be downright evil at times."

"Why thank you, Moony," Sirius said pleasantly.

Tonks shook her head and looked down at the picture in her hand. "I barely remember this," she said.

"I didn't expect you to remember it at all," Sirius confessed. "I barely saw you while I served in the order and I was sent to Azkaban three years later. That was the last carefree day I had."

Tonks pointed her wand at the picture and muttered, "Geminio," making a copy of it and handing the original back to Sirius. "I have to go. Kingsley is expecting me back at the ministry for an assignment," she said as she pocketed her copy.

"Can't keep the ministry waiting," Sirius said. When she left he turned to Remus. "I'm glad she stopped by," he said.

"Yeah," Remus agreed with a contemplative expression.

* * *

Sirius had tapped a large piece of parchment on the wall of the parlor to act as a checklist when he and Remus had finished their research. A quill was poised to jot down the points of their plan.

"So we agree that the ideal setting is under the new moon," Remus checked off, the quill marking it down on the parchment.

"It might be best if we did it at the scene of the crime," Sirius said.

Remus looked at him. "Their home is in ruins. It's a wonder that parts of it still stands,"

"But the best chances are to return to the scene of the crime for the spell to work properly. That's why it backfired on Walburga, she didn't do it properly," Sirius insisted.

Remus nodded. "Did you finish the spell?" he asked, referring to the fact that they had to write a customized spell.

"Yeah, I believe so," Sirius answered and unfolded a piece of parchment and began to recite it, "I call on the ancient power to release the souls of Lily and James Potter whom died the most unnatural death. Bring them back from the abyss of death and breath life into them once more. Return them to us. Let them cross over and return to us."

"Sounds lengthy," Remus commented.

"This is ancient magic. Spell casting for ancient wizards was in incantations," Sirius reminded him.

"You are the expert in the history of magic, especially in ancient magic," Remus stated, remembering well how easily magic came to Sirius while they were in school because of his lifelong study of magic. "I always had to work extra hard to keep up with you," he remembered.

"You used to get mad at me at the beginning because of my lazy approach," Sirius said.

"I didn't understand how you did it until our third year when we both took ancient studies and you came into class knowing the basics and more already," Remus said as he shook his head.

"You're the best at latin translations so you need to translate this incantation," Sirius told him, cutting off the reminiscing.

Remus took the slip of parchment. "Good to know that there are some things that I'm better at than you or James," he stated good humoredly.

"Now onto the alter. We'll need a representative of Lily and James and a few select personal things," Sirius began.

"I think I have a picture of Lily and James together. I gave most of them to Hagrid when he asked for them to make a photo album for Harry," Remus said.

"We need something personal of James and something personal of Lily's and then form a triangle," Sirius checked off.

"That shouldn't be too hard to find once we're inside the house," Remus nodded.

Sirius nodded as he glanced up at the checklist. "So that's everything. Snivellus said the potion will be ready by then. You should tell him where to bring it. When is the new moon again?" he said.

"June 27th," Remus automatically replied. "And I'll send Severus an owl."

"Good, you do that," Sirius said as he pointed his wand at the checklist. "In just three weeks we'll have our friends back," he said quietly.

Remus nodded. "Yeah. Harry will be happy too," he said.

Sirius frowned. "With everything he has faced and what he will have to face, Harry needs them more than we do. We're doing this for him," he said firmly.

"Fo Harry," Remus agreed, although a part of him knew that Sirius wasn't doing so just for Harry's sake.

* * *

It was decided that the best place to cast the spell would be the scene of the crime. It was the first time that either Sirius or Remus had been to Godric's Hollow since the night James and Lily died. Sirius had decided to wear his father's cloak to conceal his identity as he flew into the living room of Potter Cottage on an old broomstick while Remus just apparated in. The potion Snape had brewed was waiting for them in the middle of the living room in a bubbling cauldron.

Sirius took a moment to compose himself as he took a look around. The windows were completely blown out and in their place were gaping holes in the walls in the place where blue curtains used to hang over the windows. The sunny yellow painted walls were now faded to a mellow nicotine shade stained with mold. The white carpet was tattered to an eaten up rag and the blue couch was molding with holes and springs poking out. The tables now were piles of splintered wood while family photos were half destroyed. James's Puddlemere United quidditch poster, which was signed by all members of the team, was ripped to shreds. Harry's playpen lay in a broken heap, his toys strewn about the floor blackened from age and dirt.

"Just knowing how it used to look makes seeing what it has become that much terrible," Remus said.

Sirius said nothing as he bent down to pick up the toy broom by the fireplace. "Harry's first broom. I bought this for him for his birthday," he said. "I doubt he remembers it."

"I think Harry remembers more than he lets on," Remus said.

Sirius looked at him. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's just something he said to me once. I didn't ask any further questions," Remus told him.

Sirius didn't press the subject further as he set the toy broom down. "We need a bit of both Lily and James. I think we might find that in the bedroom," he said.

"We don't have much time before we have to get started so this needs to be quick," Remus reminded him. "Lumos," he muttered as he held out his wand. Beside him Sirius did the same and the two men carefully climbed the stairs to the only remaining part of the upstairs, Lily and James' bedroom.

The bedroom was in just the same condition as the living room. The once pristine pastel walls were now faded white and had foliage growing alongside it. The nursery beside the bedroom was gone, taking with it a chunk of the wall that connected it. The windows weren't blasted out like the living room, but the glass had been blown out as if a cannon was fired out of them. The once beautiful white queen anne's lace curtains now hung like dusty cobwebs. The bed was left the same, the patchwork quilt that had belonged to Lily's grandmother was matted with decay and mold while the mattress had holes and chunks missing from it. Other than that things were still left intact.

Remus walked over to the dressing table which was still littered with Lily's things in just the same order as she had left it. He picked up a brush which still had Lily's hair in it and plucked the hair from it. Sirius however was tearing things apart and rummaging through them, pulling drawers out and dumping them.

"What are you doing?" Remus asked.

"Looking for James' comb. He had taken a habit of hiding it in different locations because I would bewitch it on him," Sirius explained and then grinned. "He never did know what to expect any time I found it," he remembered.

"I remember when he combed his hair one morning and it turned his hair into all the colors of the rainbow. He was so mad at you," Remus recalled.

"Chased me all over Hogwarts. Since I took the map, he had a difficult time finding me," Sirius said with a sparkle in his eyes. "Ah ha! Found it," Sirius said triumphantly as he plucked a black comb from where it stuck to the underside of the wardrobe.

Remus looked out to the night sky watchfully, keenly aware of the moon. "The new moon approaches," he said.

Sirius grabbed bits of black hair from the comb before pocketing it. "Then what are we waiting for?" he said.

Once back in the living room, Sirius summoned two cups from the kitchen and muttered a quick cleaning spell and handed Remus one cup. They ladled the potion into the cups and added the hairs. Inside the cups the black potion bubbled and turned red. "Let this potion be the new blood that is the essence of life itself," he said ominously.

Remus carefully marked the two cups as Sirius handed him his. "You stay here and do your part. I'll call you in the mirror to let you know when I'm ready," he said as he took the two cups of potion and left for the cemetery.

Sirius took a deep breath as he began taking little things here and there to arrange the altar, kneeling on the floor before it. He took out his wand and pointed it at the altar.

"Padfoot..."

Sirius dug in his pocket for the two way mirror and glanced down. "You ready, Moony?" he asked.

"The new moon will rise in one minute, we must do this in a synchronized motion," Remus told him.

"Say the word," Sirius said.

"Now."

Sirius looked to the altar and recited the latin incantation, "Invoco in antiquos potestatem dimittere animas Lily, et Iacobum, Potter moreretur maxime unatural mortem. Abyssi et spiritus a morte revocare eum amplius vivere. Convertam eos ad nos. Et submisit ea ad nos transeunt." At the same time that Remus poured the potion over James and Lily's graves.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Sirius wasn't sure that it had worked at first when everything remained still. His breathing evened out as he tried to detect if it had worked. Checking his notes and the book laying in front of him, he tried to see if he had missed a step. So far the only sounds he could hear were the creaking and groaning of the ruins of James and Lily's house. The bubbling cauldron in front of him turned from blood red to black. Sirius, taking note of this, stood up and waited for Remus to return. However, patience was never his strong point. Grabbing his father's heavy black cloak, he gathered it around himself and pulled the hood up, obstructing half of his face. He made his way out to the cemetery, thankful for the late hour.

He found Remus kneeling before James and Lily's grave, cups in his hands, empty from pouring it over the graves. "Anything?" he asked.

"I've been waiting here for some sort of sign and thinking about what we're doing," Remus said.

"And?" Sirius queried.

"I've come to the conclusion that you are insane and I'm insane for letting you convince me that this would work," Remus said, standing up.

"I was so sure that it would," Sirius said.

"Yes, and I'm sure that your mother believed it just as deeply when she tried to raise your brother," Remus stated dryly.

Sirius glowered at his friend. "I told you never to mention that old hag to me," he growled.

"I'm just stating a fact, Padfoot," Remus defended himself. "We can't hang around here for too long. Someone might see you," he rationalized.

"Lets get back to James's house and wait this out. No one will look for us in there. Besides, it's the first place they would go if it did work," Sirius proposed, not ready to give up just yet.

"Fine; but transform, will you?" Remus conceded.

Sirius didn't reply but did as he was asked and once in dog form, he trotted away in the direction of James and Lily's old house. Remus gathered up the old doxy-eaten cloak and followed suit.

* * *

But as the two friends returned to the condemned house and had something to eat before falling asleep, they did not know that under the graves marked Lily and James Potter, the potions had seeped down and into the pine coffins, dripping onto the two bodies within. Both bodies began to glow as a golden red mist formed and covered the decaying bodies. Slowly the mist worked through the bodies and flowed deep inside them until the decaying process was reversed and life returned to them.

James gasped for life first, opening his eyes to darkness, and felt around in his coffin. As the reality of his situation hit, he began to panic as he pounded on the lid above him. He clawed at the surface, ripping apart the fabric and pounding harder against the hard wood, only managing to crack it. As he felt his hands begin to bleed, he groped around him, hoping he would find a wand. He quickly found one laying beside him. He began to think of spells to break out of this confining space. "con... con...confrin...confringo," he rasped, pointing the wand upwards. A few sparks spouted and dulled. Breathing deeply, he tried nonverbal magic as he concentrated on the spell. That seemed to do the trick as the wood above him and the dirt covering it blasted upwards, creating a small hole. Clutching the wand between his teeth, James began to haul himself up and crawl through it. He caught himself on splintered wood, cutting a gash in his leg and the side of his torso. He dug himself out through six feet of dirt. Once he broke surface, he crawled up onto the grass and collapsed onto his back, taking huge gulping breaths.

He senses seemed to be working as though from far away; as the sound of the night reached his ears, sounding more like he were underwater, and his vision was cloudy, much in the same way, but he could feel the cool grass beneath him. Beside him he heard another blast as dirt and broken wood flew up and over him. Shoving the debris off of himself, he crawled onto his side in time to see a pair of small hands group out of a similar hole. Without thinking, he moved and grasped the hands helping their owner up through their hole, meeting the familiar face of his wife who, like him, gasped for breath, shaking from the terror they both just faced.

Holding onto each other, they both turned to notice the headstone bearing their names and panic overtook them. Backing away from the headstone as though it would swallow them whole, they both scrambled to their feet and hurriedly put as much distance between themselves and the graves as they could, only stopping once they reached the gate to the cemetery. Lily collapsed against the wall as James slammed the gate closed behind them.

Breathing raggedly, Lily gasped, "Harry."

James fell down before her and gathered her in his arms. Though both were living the trauma of digging themselves out of their own graves, James still felt the urge to comfort his wife. Neither knew how long they huddled together against the cemetery wall when a used newspaper blew up against them. With a shaky hand, James examined it, trying to make sense of the words on the page, his eyesight still cloudy. He squinted at the paper but only found it to be a muggle newspaper.

Lily took the page from him and gasped, her hands trembling as she struggled for breath as she saw the date: June 27, 1995. Hyperventilating, she struggled to say the date out loud. James grasped her shoulders and forced her to look at him, silently asking her what was wrong. Brandishing the paper in front of him, she pointed to the date. "19...19...1995," she rasped out.

"What?" James rasped disbelievingly as he too struggled for breath. Slowly his mental faculties caught up with him as he began to rationalize that it was unlikely that a muggle newspaper would print the wrong date.

"Harry!" Lily rasped as she stumbled and pushed herself up, using the wall for support. She broke out in a run down the street towards their house with James following her.

She reached the iron garden gate to their house and feel into it. Looking up she panicked even further. "No!" she howled, unlocking the gate and rushing forward, collapsing in the middle of the front path, shaking in compete sorrow. She barely registered James collapsing beside her and throwing his arms around her. "No!" she cried even louder into the night.

* * *

Inside the ruins that was once a house, only one room remained the safest. The living room that had once been cozy and the center of a small family's life, now lay in rotten decay. Only one piece of furniture remained intact enough to sit on and it was there that Remus Lupin had curled up on in an awkward position. Beside him on the floor was a huge black dog, curled up.

However a loud echoing cry of agony came through the hole in the wall where a window used to be. The dog raised his head in alertness and strained it's ears for more sound. What he heard was someone sobbing outside. Springing up, the dog nudged Remus in the arm with his nose only for Remus to snort and turn over. Giving up, the dog trotted to the door, nudging it open and went outside. There were two people huddled on the walk together. Unable to see who they were, the dog growled, his hackles raised and he poised himself for attack.

Upon alerting his presence, the couple looked up and saw him. They froze as they noticed him and began to back away when he started barking. Neither of them got a good look at the dog, but the dog managed to get a good look at them and recognized them immediately. Barking some more, the dog pounced and tackled the man to the ground and began to lick his face between barks, wagging his tail feveresy.

* * *

James and Lily didn't recognize the dog at first when he appeared at the door and became weary of his aggression. However, when the dog pounced on James and started licking his face happily, they knew instantly who the dog was. And as fast as the dog had pounced, the dog jumped off of James and trotted inside the house, only looking back at them when he paused in the doorway.

James and Lily slowly stood up, gazing at the ruins that used to be their house before following the dog inside. Once there they found a gaunt looking man with waist length matted black hair and wearing grey rags. He was laughing triumphantly, pulling both James and Lily into a bone crushing hug.

"I knew it would work! I just knew it! Moony wake up you lazy wolf, it worked!" Sirius shouted jubilantly. Letting go of James and Lily, he pulled out a wand and sent a stinging hex to Remus' arse as he was snoring into the matted and molding couch.

Remus jerked awake. "That's it!" he threatened groggily and sent a stunner of his own at Sirius whole ducked out of the way.

"Ha! Gotta be quicker than that!" Sirius cackled. "My mother had better aim than you!"

Remus turned around. "How is it that I'm forbidden from mentioning your evil mother but you can mention her while taunting me?" he ranted and then spotted Lily and James. "You crazy mutt," he said.

"Oi! I'm not a mutt, I'm a pedigree!" Sirius snapped indignantly.

Remus ignored him as he walked over to Lily and James, taking in their attire, the same robes they were buried in; he should know, he had picked them out. He also noticed their dirty and bleeding state. "Your spell worked, alright, Sirius. But apparently you didn't consider that they would be brought back right where they were left," he said hollowly.

Sirius sobered up as realization dawned on him. "Oh, no," he breathed.

Remus held his wand and reached for Lily's hands to heal them but she jerked away and James put his arms around her protectively. "It's alright, I'm just going to heal you," he said. "You do trust me, Prongs, Lily?" he asked cautiously.

James and Lily looked at each other as they stepped away, backing against the wall where bits of debris fell on them.

"What's wrong with them, Remus?" Sirius asked worriedly.

"They're in shock. Wouldn't you be if you had to dig yourself out of your own grave," Remus snapped.

"I didn't..." Sirius trailed off, not knowing what to say. "I just wanted to get them back, for Harry's sake," he defended himself lamely.

Lily and James looked up at the mention of their son. "Harry," Lily whispered brokenly.

"Harry is safe," Remus assured them.

"Remus, we probably should get them out of here," Sirius whispered from behind him as he heard voices down the lane.

"We'll take you to Harry, but you have to trust us," Remus told Lily and James.

"How are we going to do that? They're bloody well not fit to apparate and I very much doubt the floo connection here still works," Sirius whispered.

"I'm thinking," Remus hissed at him.

Sirius paced behind him like a caged animal. "You need to bloody well think fast," he hissed. "Aurors are coming to check things out," he snapped.

Remus, acknowledging Sirius' heightened awareness with aurors and dementors, didn't think twice as he grabbed an old toy of Harry's and tapped his wand upon it, "portus," he hissed.

Sirius grinned. "Why, Moony, is that an illegal portkey?" he taunted.

"No time to chat about this, Padfoot. We need to get going, remember?" Remus retorted, grabbing ahold of Lily as Sirius grabbed James and touched the portkey with Remus. As aurors reached the garden gate, the portkey transported them out of the wrecked house.


	4. From Death to Life

Chapter 4: From Death to Life

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't be here… I wouldn't be anywhere." ― Faraaz Kazi

"Life was such a fragile thing—as delicate and as beautiful as a butterfly, as ephemeral as a sunset. Death is peaceful. Death is quiet, silent. It is calming." ― Akanksha

* * *

"Well, they're asleep," Remus stated as he entered the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

Sirius sat at the head of the table with his feet propped up on it, leaning back in his chair on its two back legs and cutting into an apple with a pocket knife. "I must say, your brief training as a mediwizard has come in handy. It's a good thing they didn't kick you out earlier," he said as he bit off a piece of apple from the blade of the knife.

The subject of Remus' expulsion from mediwizard training was a sore spot for Remus. And despite Sirius' causal mentioning of it, he still held a grudge over the reasoning behind it. "I just wanted to help people," Remus lamented.

"You would have too if people's judgement didn't get clouded when they heard the word: werewolf," Sirius stated darkly.

Remus smiled ruefully. "How is it that I've never lost your support? After all those years where I believed you were guilty," he asked.

"Because we swore to stand by you until we died, no matter what," Sirius reminded him simply.

Remus nodded, remembering the night Sirius and James confronted him during their first year at Hogwarts. How they promised to always be friends and swore that they could care less that he was a werewolf; that they, in fact, thought it was great fun. He knew then that he was lucky to have had such good friends.

"So did you have to knock them out?" Sirius asked.

"Sort of. I gave them something to help them relax. But I doubt that they'll be down for long," Remus answered. "By the way, we probably should get them something to wear other than what they were buried in," he said thoughtfully.

"I've already taken care of it," Sirius said, taking another bite of the apple.

Remas gaped at him. "How did you manage that without being caught or seen?" he demanded.

"I asked Dora to get me a wardrobe for both a man and a woman and gave her the key to my vault with a note for James and Lily's sizes," Sirius informed him.

"Did you tell her why you wanted wardrobes for a man and a woman?" Remus asked.

Sirius looked at him thoughtfully, another piece of apple halfway to his mouth. "No, but she did give me this amused wink," he said.

"I think Andromeda has filled her head with stories from when we were teenagers," Remus told him.

"Huh," Sirius said, shrugging his shoulders. "Well that explains the wink."

"You're not too upset that she thinks you've decided to become a crossdresser?" Remus stated questionably.

"Not really. I like being the eccentric one," Sirius told him with a cheeky grin.

Remus just shook his head in response. However a loud crash from upstairs caught their attention.

"Probably just Kreacher trying to hoard things again," Sirius muttered darkly. However not three seconds after he said it then the elf in question walked past the kitchen door, muttering darkly.

Both Remus and Sirius jumped up and began hurrying up the stairs as quietly as possible to the room they had designated for Lily and James, accross the one Sirius had picked out for Harry. They burst into the room to find Lily on the floor, picking up pieces of a broken picture frame. She looked up at them upon their entrance.

"Where am I?" she asked brokenly.

"The Most Ancient House of Black," Sirius told her with an air of disdain as Remus took over cleaning up the broken pieces of glass and moved to repair it. "Just toss it, the frame and its occupants mean little to me," he snapped coldly at Remus.

"Is this hell?" Lily asked brokenly.

"I've always thought so," Sirius grumbled bitterly and Remus shot him a sharp look.

"No, Lily, why would you say that?" Remus asked, concerned.

"Why are we here then?" Lily asked.

"Because...because Harry needs you," Remus said.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. "After what he's been through, he needs more support than your bloody sister is willing to give him," he muttered darkly. "If Moony would let me, I'd hex her and that walrus she married."

"Not the point, Sirius!" Remus snapped.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the front door, followed by someone knocking over the troll umbrella stand and followed by Mrs. Black's screaming which woke James up who jerked up in the bed, wand at ready, his eyes wildly searching the room.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius cursed as he ran down the stairs. "Shut up you old hag! Shut up!" he shouted.

"Yoooou! Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said SHUT UP! Sirius screamed as he closed the curtains and turned to a sheepish looking Tonks.

"Sorry," she said as she held up the bundles of clothes and bags.

"Maybe I should move that umbrella stand," Sirius stated, rubbing the back of his neck. "Is that what I asked for?" he asked.

"You said to spare no expense and to go wild," Tonks reminded him.

"You keep some for yourself?" Sirius asked.

"Yup. Like my new jacket?" Tonks replied.

"Nice, dragonhide?" Sirius replied. "Did you get something for your parents?"

"Yes, but the goblins at gringotts kept giving me suspicious looks when I told them what vault I wanted to get into," Tonks told him.

"Well, they shouldn't. You're a Black by blood, you have a right to that money," Sirius told her.

"So what did you need these clothes for?" Tonks asked curiously.

"Umm...well...it's kind of a surprise," Sirius told her, taking the bundles of clothes.

"A surprise, tell me!" Tonks said.

"Maybe later," Sirius told her just as a loud bang could be heard from above them.

"What was that?" Tonks asked.

"Ah, that was just Kreacher," Sirius told her. "Let me know how Andromeda and Ted like their gifts," he told her as he ushered her to the door.

"But, Sirius!" Tonks protested.

Sirius closed the door on her and hurried back up the stairs to find that James had tackled Remus to the floor and was trying to strangle him while Remus was doing his best to shove James off of him.

"A little help here!" Remus called to him when he spotted Sirius.

Amused by his friend's predicament, Sirius deposited the bundles at his feet and leaned up against the door frame. "I don't know, I thought werewolves had extra human strength," he said lazily.

"It's not funny, Sirius!" Remus snapped. "He thinks I'm a death eater and I've captured him and kidnapped Harry!"

"You mean someone thinks you're the death eater and not me? Oh lucky day," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Padfoot!" Remus snapped.

"Oh alright!" Sirius said. He pushed himself away from the doorframe and walked over to them, grabbing James under the arms and pulling him away. "Bad Prongs, you don't try to kill Moony!" he chastised.

"Where's Harry?" James demanded.

"In Little Winning with Petunia, you'll be seeing him soon," Sirius told him placidly.

"Why?" James croaked.

"Why is he with Petunia? Well, you'll have to take that up with Dumbledore. He refused to let me take him after Peter soled you out to Voldemort," Sirius told him.

"Which was almost fourteen years ago," Remus stated as he stood up, rubbing his neck.

"What happened?" James demanded.

"Well..." Sirius trailed off and looked to Remus.

"What do you remember?" Remus asked hesitantly.

"I...there was someone outside...I felt cold and I knew," James said.

"Peter told Voldemort where to find you," Sirius filled in. "I'm so sorry, James. I should have never suggested using him. Can you ever forgive me?" Sirius pleaded.

"I told Lily to take Harry and run, that I would hold him off," James said as the memory came back to him.

"Then you died, you died standing between Voldemort and your family," Remus told him gently.

Lily stepped forward and knelt next to James. "He cornered me in the nursery, demanded that I step aside and let him kill Harry. I wouldn't do it and I begged him not to hurt Harry, I pleaded for mercy but he wouldn't hear of it," she cried, brokenly. "I remember the curse, the flash of green and the pain and then nothing. My baby was left alone." She started crying after that and James held her close.

Remus knelt down next her. "You saved Harry's life, Lily. By sacrificing yourself, you invoked powerful magic that enabled him to survive the killing curse. Harry is alive because you loved him enough to die for him," he told her.

"If we died, then why are we here?" James wanted to know.

"You're here because I brought you here," Sirius explained. "I found a book in my mother's possessions that describes such magic. I used it because now, more than ever, Harry needs you. What he has already faced is nothing compared to what he will face next and he will need all the support he could get," he knelt down before Lily and James. "Dark times are upon us. That night when Voldemort attacked you almost destroyed him and now he has returned. The ministry refuses to believe that he has and is attacking Dumbledore and Harry, calling them liars. They claim that Dumbledore wants to take over the ministry and that Harry is off his rocker. No one was there when Voldemort returned save for Harry and the ministry refuses to go on his word alone," he finished.

"Why are we in your parents house?" James asked Sirius pointedly.

"Because I'm loaning it to the Order as headquarters. My parents died years ago and it's been empty since Walburga croaked," Sirius answered. "Perfect use for it, I'd say." He then offered his friend an encouraging smile. "Want to see some pictures of Harry? I've got a scrapbook," he offered in order to change the subject.

"When did you get a scrapbook?" Remus asked.

"Hagrid gave it to me, cried all over me and said he knew I was innocent all along," Sirius answered.

"Where was I?" Remus asked bewildered.

"Well, you were curled up with Buckbeak, sleeping off the full moon," Sirius answered.

"Ah, yes. The Wolfsbane potion tends to do that," Remus said dryly.

"You two need to fill us in," Lily said, wiping her eyes.

* * *

"It's been how long since Halloween?" James asked again.

"That particular Halloween? About thirteen years and eight months," Sirius answered after quickly thinking it over in his head.

"It's impossible..." James said.

"Then why did that muggle newspaper say it was 1995?" Remus reasoned.

"But how can we have been dead for nearly fourteen years?" Lily asked.

Sirius just showed them the book he used.

James cursed as he read the page Sirius indicated. "You're bloody mental!" he snapped angrily.

"He's had bouts of it since he broke out of Azkaban," Remus stated dryly.

James looked up. "Azkaban?" he questioned.

Sirius then explained how Peter framed him and how he spent twelve years in the wizarding prison.

"Wait, if you were in Azkaban for twelve years, then where was Harry?" Lily wanted to know.

Remus and Sirius shared a look which was never a good sign.

"Where is our son?" James demanded threateningly, emphasizing each word.

"It's not my fault," Sirius began.

"This time it really isn't," Remus cut in.

Sirius glanced at him. "Put a sock in it, Remus! I don't need you to jump to my defense at every opportunity," he snapped. Turning back to the two rather threatening looking parents and eyeing how they both had a hand in their pockets, fisted around what must be their wands, he started to explain. "It was Dumbledore! Well, he somehow knew about it before I did and when I arrived at your house, well, Hagrid was already there carrying Harry out. I immediately told him to give me Harry but the oaf refused because Dumbledore ordered him to take Harry to your sister. I all but gave up there. I was a wreck and I didn't really stop to think. I was the only one to know the truth and the only one who could catch the rat before he escaped and there was no time to convince Dumbledore that I was innocent so I decided to go after the rat instead of fighting for Harry," he explained and at the steely looks he received, he backed up a few steps. "The good thing is that Harry knows everything and we have a regular correspondence where he tells me everything that's going on," he told them.

Remus looked at his two recently returned friends. "Is there anything specific that either of you would like to ask us?" he asked before Sirius dug himself deeper. His question somehow was able to change the mood of the room as both Lily and James turned away from Sirius, each wearing a blank look.

"No," Lily said suddenly. "I'm tired and I have a headache from what I've just learned right now," she calmly added.

"And I don't know what else to say so it's best if you left us alone," James said, not looking at his two best friends.

Remus nodded and pulled Sirius out of the room before Sirius could say anything else.

Once they were gone, Lily collapsed onto the bed and wept as James turned away, staring fixedly out the window. Everything that they knew had just been stolen from them and replaced by such darkness. Neither were at all prepared to handle what came next just yet and they needed time to grieve for the life that they both had lost. Both of them were thinking of how much better off they were while they were dead.

* * *

A couple days later, James woke in the middle of the night, having dreamed about the night he had died. Beside him, Lily was still sleeping. Not wishing to disturb her, James carefully got out of bed and left the room, deciding to go downstairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Upon his entrance, he found Sirius sitting at the table, casually leaning back in his chair on its rear legs and nursing a bottle of firewhiskey.

"What are you doing awake?" Sirius asked.

"I woke up," James stated as he grabbed a glass and filled it with water.

"I can't sleep," Sirius stated. "Every time that I close my eyes, I dream about either Azkaban or Walburga," he confessed.

"Have you tried a dreamless sleep potion?" James asked flatly.

"Don't have any," Sirius said. "But the firewhiskey is serving as an alternative."

"Hmm," James hummed as he took a sip of water.

"So what woke you?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," James said evasively, unwilling to discuss the topic.

Sirius eyed him shrewdly. "You know, whenever Harry doesn't want to talk about something he pretends that it's nothing so he could get people to leave him alone," he pointed out. "It never works," he added.

James frowned and knitted his brows together, a sure sign, to those who knew him, that he was nettled about something. He said nothing to Sirius' comment, but instead set his glass down on the counter rather roughly and turned to leave.

Sirius righted his chair with a snap and said, "If you have something to say then say it," he said evenly.

"I have nothing to say," James told him and walked towards the door to the kitchen only to have his way blocked when a cupboard jumped in front of it. Turning around, he found a wand laying on the table near Sirius' right hand. "What do you want me to say, Sirius?" he demanded coolly.

"Why are you acting like such a git?" Sirius demanded. He then stood up and rounded the table. "I know that you used to like to act superior and show off in school, but the James Potter I used to know wasn't a git," he said.

"The James Potter that you used to know died, if you've forgotten," James pointed out.

"I haven't forgotten," Sirius told him evenly.

"Neither have I," James said and with a flick of his own wand, the cupboard moved out of his way and he left the kitchen and Sirius behind him.

* * *

It had been over a week since the new moon and in that time Lily and James kept to themselves and spent their time in silence when they were around their friends. Both Remus and Sirius tried to strike up conversations with them and even chatted about non consequential things and mostly talked about Harry. But neither Lily nor James paid much attention because all they could think about was what had happened on that Halloween night and the position that their friends had now put them through by bringing them back. James in particular had begun to get more and more agitated by the simplest things while Lily tended to become more reserved. And since it was a secret that they were alive, both Sirius and Remus found themselves making excuses, lying, and using new tricks to keep their friends hidden and out of the way during order meetings. Two weeks since their resurrection, James confronted his two friends on this, having seen through their act all along and threatened to reveal himself at the next order meeting.

"And how are you going to find out when that is if I don't tell you?" Sirius had challenged.

"I'll use my invisibility cloak to spy on you. Now where is it?" James snapped.

"Harry has it," Sirius stated proudly. And so he had managed to thwart James once but he knew that it was unlikely that it would happen a second time.

James however wasn't pleased. Choosing to distance himself from his two friends, he exiled himself to his and Lily's room until he could think of a better plan. Not caring about Mrs. Black's screams, he forcefully slammed the door behind him and punched it hard enough to painfully crack his knuckles, swearing with such vulgarity that would shame his mother had she still been alive. He tuned out the outraged screams of the portrait downstairs and Sirius roars in response. Turning, he found Lily sitting on the sofa at the end of the bed and staring at a leather bound photo album laying on the table in front of her as though it held inside it some sort of plague.

"What is that?" he asked sitting down beside her.

"A scrapbook. Sirius brought it up earlier. He said that it held pictures of Harry inside," Lily told him, not taking her eyes off the book. It was as though she were afraid of it.

James glanced at the book and understood perfectly. Inside that book was the confirmation that this nightmare was real and neither of them were quite willing to accept the facts just yet. "If we open that book..."

"Then everything that we've been told these past two weeks is real," Lily finished. "That we were dead for fourteen years."

"I can't see any reason for either Sirius or Remus to lie about that," James told her.

"You couldn't see that Peter was a death eater either," Lily snapped coldly.

James looked at her. "Why would they lie about something like that?" he argued.

"I don't know!" Lily cried and stood up in order to put distance between them as she paced briefly. "To be dead for fourteen years and then brought back to life, how is that even possible?" she questioned.

"Anything is possible where magic is concerned. There are many ways around death that is considered forbidden knowledge. To alter nature in such a way; such magic comes with a price that some would even call it dark magic," James stated.

"What kind of price?" Lily demanded cautiously.

"I don't know," James answered honestly. "I've only come across the briefest mentions of it in books held in the restricted section of the Hogwarts Library. I've never read much detail on the subject. If I had the option, I would ask my father for advice on the subject."

Lily went to him and sat back down, grasping his arm. "If this is dark magic that brought us back, then is there a chance that we came back wrong in some way? What affect does this have on us?" she wanted to know.

"I don't know!" James snapped, this time being the one to stand up. He ran both hands through his hair in frustration, making it stick up in an awful mess. "I don't know what the price was for us to come back. I wake up every night because I keep reliving my death in my sleep and I have to think about how fourteen years has passed by since and all I can feel is anger and resentment. I'm so angry at Sirius for being so reckless and at Remus for being coerced into helping him. Didn't they think about what it would be like for us? No, all they could think about is how great it would be to have us back. It was selfish and even though they don't say it, I know that they expect everything to go back to the way things were but it never will," he ranted as he paced.

Lily followed his movements silently. "It will never be the same, how can they think that it will be?" she said quietly.

James made a derisive noise. "Don't ask me for insight into Sirius' depraved mind," he said acidly. He then sat down and faced the photo album. "I suppose he thinks that would make us happy," he said.

Lily brought her knees up against her chest. "I don't want to look at it," she said.

"So lets not look at it," James agreed.

Lily turned to him. "What does that make us then?" she asked.

"Afraid of reality?" James supplied and then shook his head. "I just don't want to face it yet," he said. "It shouldn't make us terrible, right?"

"I hope not," Lily said.

* * *

James considered himself a logical person and mostly rational with the exceptions of a few things where he would ignore logic and reason. He was also intelligent and very skilled when came to magic. He was, after all, a product of his father's high expectations. He held high moral character when it came to wizarding issues and held himself as a wizard of honor. However prepared to die for the things he believed in and for his family, and did by the way, he never considered the possibility of cheating death or returning from death. James had believed that death was permanent, but, alas, he was wrong. James had underestimated the attachment Sirius had towards him.

Now James, along with Lily, was forced to face what it meant to be alive after being dead for thirteen and a half years. There was a lot that had changed in the world in that time and much to adjust to.

Remus, Sirius' accomplice once more, had the foresight to prepare some key notes of everything that had happened during the time that James and Lily had been dead. And thanks to Remus' key organization skills and hoarding habits when it came to sources of information, he had a book comprised of every issue of the daily prophet for the past fourteen years, all of which he had brought over for James and Lily to peruse.

"So here it is," James stated as he looked to the books containing the information Remus had given them. "The proof that we've been dead for thirteen years."

"I suppose that we should start to look through them, shouldn't we?" Lily said from her place next to the fireplace.

"Logically, we should acquaint ourselves with what happened in our absence. But, I'm not sure if I'm ready to face this reality," James said.

Lily moved to stand beside him and looped her arm around his. "Will we ever be ready to face it?" she asked.

James looked her in the eye. "I don't think we'll have a choice," he said. "I don't think we can live inside the safety of the bubble of ignorance for too long. Not if Remus and Sirius are telling the truth and Voldemort is at large."

Lily nodded and took a seat, flipping open Remus' notes. "I'm sure that Remus wrote down the important stuff. I think we should start with that and then reference it with the prophets he brought over," she said.

"Not exactly the study plan that I'm accustomed to, but I suppose your way is best," James said as he joined her.

They sat in silence as they read over the information, occasionally referencing it together and James didn't know how much time had passed until Lily spoke, her gaze drawn to a particular passage in the prophet. "Do you feel like you've gone to sleep and are now inside your own nightmare?" she asked.

"A never ending one," James answered, his eyes fixed on a particular paragraph that he had read five times already, trying to focus on the words rather than his own morose thoughts about life and death and everything between.

After another period of silence, Lily spoke again. "I wish that I was still dead," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

James reached over and took her hand, looking her in the eye. "As do I," he agreed.

Lily nodded and took a deep breath to compose herself. "No one can know," she said. "If any of our friends knew about this, it would crush them," she told him.

James wasn't sure if he could keep something this strong from his friends, but he agreed nonetheless. "We'll not say a word," he said. After all, there was no use doing anything about it but to try to deal with the situation they were dealt.

* * *

In the second week of July, the daily prophet arrived and as soon as the delivery owl dropped the paper in front of Remus, it took off again. Remus set down his toast and unrolled the paper and cursed, abusing the minister of magic and the prophet all in one sentence which caused Sirius to stare at him in shock.

"What have they done now?" Sirius asked.

Remus brandished the paper for him to see the front page which was a picture of Harry with the headline: THE BOY WHO LIED. "They're not only attacking Dumbledore, now they're calling Harry a disturbed teenager who has resorted in lying to gain attention and to create mass panic," he snapped.

Sirius grabbed the paper and narrowed his eyes to slits. "They wouldn't be saying this if they heard him describe what happened in that graveyard," he said darkly and then began to utter a series of vicious threats towards the minister.

"I wonder if we could get Harry's memory of what happened and put it in a pensieve," Remus mused logically.

Sirius eyed Remus. "You can ask him, but I'm not sure if he would want to revisit the issue," he said.

"It was just a thought. If certain people were to see it, they might be able to believe it better," Remus told him.

"Good morning."

Remus and Sirius swiveled around at the surprising cheery tone and stared as Lily and James walked into the kitchen. "Run into any cheering charms lately?" Sirius asked bluntly.

"No, why?" James said evenly.

"Ignore him. The prophet has him in a sour mood," Remus said calmly but otherwise unable to hide his own irritation.

"What about the prophet?" Lily asked.

Sirius brandished the prophet to them. "Nothing like a cowardly politician to spread vicious slurs to maintain his own little fantasy," he said sarcastically.

James glanced at the headline and tried to ignore the picture underneath. "I don't know what it means," he admitted.

"The minister is refusing to believe that Voldemort has returned and as a result he is making Dumbledore and Harry out to be liars and off their rocker," Remus explained. He then took turns with Sirius in filling them in on what has been going on, about the Triwizard Tournament, Voldemort's return and the minister's reaction. Once they were done James and Lily had sat down at the table.

"So he's being persecuted for..." Lily began.

"Telling the truth," Sirius finished. "The ironic thing is that people don't want to hear the truth, they just want to feed on the Ministry's propaganda," he finished bitterly.

"I'm sure that Harry will be more than able to handle the ministry's slurs," Remus reasoned once he had calmed down. "I sincerely doubt he will lay down and just take it, that is something not in his character," he added.

"Ha! He'll stand up and take the ministry's persecution head one and challenge anyone who disagrees with the truth. That boy is as bold as we were, if not more and he has your temper, Lily, for sure. When this is all over, you wait, the ministry will come crawling to him, begging for his support only to be kicked away," Sirius said proudly.

Remus gave a rueful smile. "Yes, he certainly has had experience with handling bullies. I don't think he has ever back down from a bully. I know he's confronted a few and stood up to them all," he said.

Sirius looked at him. "Yeah, like Cissy's nasty little brat. Just like his filthy father, Draco is," he said. "Not to mention how much Snivellus likes to bully him in class," he added hastily.

"Snivellus?" James asked evenly.

"He's teaching potions at Hogwarts. He has a habit of taking his revenge on you and Sirius out on Harry by using his authority as a professor. He is also very harsh on Harry's friends. Poor Neville Longbottom is terrified of him," Remus explained. "Harry hates and mistrusts Severus on principal unlike you and Sirius here, when the two of you hate him for..." he looked between his two friends, "What were your reasons again? For being a slytherin slimy git?"

"Well he is!" both James and Sirius chorused.

"So Sev treats Harry terribly?" Lily asked.

Remus nodded. "Oh yes, I'm afraid. He's threatened to poison Harry as a means to test out antidotes and threatened to slip him veritaserum and I'm not sure what else," he confirmed. "I'm afraid that he looks at Harry and sees James instead," he finished.

James at least had the decency to look uncomfortable when Lily sent him a look that clearly said that Harry's misfortune was his fault.

"Anyway," Sirius interrupted. "I think it is clear that whatever the ministry decides to throw at Harry until they admit to the truth, that Harry will be more than capable to deal with it head on. However, maybe we should break it down to him so that he is prepared to handle it rather than being taken off guard. Dumbledore may say otherwise, but we should tell him straight up what is going on," he said.

"Dumbledore has his reasons for not telling Harry everything, Sirius," Remus told him.

"Dumbledore always has reasons. Reasons like dumping him with those filthy muggles which seems unfathomable. The Weasley's have already offered to take him in three years ago but were refused due to reasons that Dumbledore didn't feel necessary to explain in more words than 'Harry is protected as long as he lives with his aunt.' Which is a load of rubbish considering the way he is treated," Sirius ranted.

"Yes, we all know how annoyed you've been with Dumbledore lately, Sirius. Just don't let your irritation get in the way of the Order," Remus said placidly.

"You're irritated with Dumbledore, again?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged. "It comes and goes," He said. "I'm always loyal to Dumbledore and I trust his judgement, however I may disagree with him."

"Speaking of Dumbledore, does he know? About us, I mean." Lily asked.

Remus and Sirius shared a look before answering. "Not completely," Sirius answered.

"That would be a no," James deduced.

"Do you plan on telling him or are you going to keep us in hiding forever?" Lily asked.

"I'm looking for the right moment," Sirius hedged.

"Which translates to you're afraid to admit to Dumbledore that you disobeyed his orders or disregarded his strong advice and went along with your own crazy plans anyway," Remus said long sufferingly.

"Put a sock in it, Moony!" Sirius snapped.

Lily and James shared a look, both knowing that it wasn't going to be a pleasant moment when they were found out.

* * *

In the third week of July, Sirius received a letter from Harry. He, Remus, James and Lily were eating breakfast when they heard tapping at the window. Looking up, they saw a snowy owl outside the window.

"Hedwig!" Sirius shouted happily as he jumped up to let the owl in. "Owe, owe, bloody bird, owe, stop it or I'll stun you!" he shouted as he threw his arms over his head when she started pecking him mercilessly. "What I'd ever do to you?" he shouted at the bird.

James roared with laughter for the first time in a long time as Remus shook his head in amusement. Lily however gawked.

Hedwig soared around the room before perching herself on the back of Sirius' vacated chair and held her leg out, hooting indignantly. Sirius reached for the letter and yanked his hand back, glaring when she clicked her beak furiously. "Are you going to let me have the letter or not?" he snapped.

Lily reached over and extracted the letter, stroking the owl and then handed Sirius the letter. "Who's it from?" she asked.

"Harry. That's his bloody owl," Sirius grumbled as he sat down to read his letter.

Lily turned back to the owl. "Her name is Hedwig?" she asked, stroking the bird. "She's beautiful."

"And fiercely devoted to Harry. They have a special bond," Remus explained.

"What does he say?" James asked.

"Here, read it yourself," Sirius said, handing the letter over. "He wants answers, wants to know what's going on with Voldemort. And he instructed Hedwig to peck me until I replied," he summarized. However, as soon as he said it, he reminded Hedwig of her instructions and she started pecking him again. "Bloody hell!" he raged.

Remus silently handed him a quill and parchment and continued to eat.

* * *

A/N: A bit of a dark or depressing chapter, but I think that is supposed to be the point. Can any of you imagine what it must feel like to be dead for nearly fourteen years and then suddenly be alive again only to find that your life and everything you have ever known has been ripped to shreds? So yeah, Lily and James need to adjust to their new life and it won't be easy. If you are looking for a fluffy or happy Lily and James return fic, then this probably isn't the one for you. It is my goal to portray their return in an emotional and realistic way. I do hope that my efforts in doing so is appreciated.

In the next chapter we have the moment that I know we all have been waiting for: the reunion of Harry and his parents. I have so much for that chapter that I am considering splitting it up into two chapters so let me know what you think.


	5. Exposed And Unprotected

**A/N**:_ I've had to split this chapter up since it reached 40 pages and counting. I think I left off at the appropriate spot. I hope the build up to the next chapter is well worth it or you guys. _

* * *

A week later had Remus coming into Lily and James' room. He had come in so suddenly and closed the door behind him, leaning hard against it as though he were averting disaster. James had last seen the expression on his face when Dumbledore nearly caught them planning their next full moon escapade.

"Dumbledore is here," Remus informed them. "He's helping Sirius put his affairs in order."

"Is he dying?" James asked in slight alarm.

"No, but has been thinking about his impending death lately, again. You've noticed his melancholy moods of late," Remus answered.

"He has been acting down," Lily agreed.

"Well, we all know that Sirius is not the same Padfoot we once knew and loved. Azkaban has changed him quite a bit," Remus stated as he took a seat.

Neither James nor Lily said anything to that. Not when they, themselves, haven't felt the same since their death. Not when they were struggling to come to terms with their death and their new lives. They felt disconnected to everything and even towards their friends. Even when they sat together, they never joked or talked about the past. They've asked questions about Harry, but even then, they hadn't yet found a way to connect to anything Remus or Sirius told them. They had yet to even look through the scrapbook that Sirius gave them. But for their friend's sake, they plastered on a brave face and pretended to be happy to be alive again.

"MOONY!" Sirius shouted followed by Mrs. Black's screams and Sirius screaming at her to shut up, again.

Remus groaned as he stood up. "I think this house is beginning to addle his brains more than Azkaban could have," he grumbled as he left to find out what his insane friend wanted.

When he did not return fifteen minutes later, James stood up and pressed his ear to the door. Unable to hear anything, he cracked the door open. The house, it seemed, was silent. "I think the coast is clear," he stated, opening the door even wider. Together, he and Lily made their way down the stairs, stopping at the second landing to see Sirius shooting hexes at his mother's portrait, burning holes in it.

"I'll burn you down if you don't SHUT UP!" Sirius bellowed in responses to his mother's shrieks, a man look in his eye.

At the same time that Lily and James continued to make their way down the stairs, Remus entered the hall, saying, "As you can see, Sirius is about to go insane unless we find a way to remove his mother's portrait." Remus froze when he spotted Lily and James. "Bad, bad timing," he moaned because, standing behind him was Albus Dumbledore.

The expression on Dumbledore's face was unreadable as he stared hard at Lily and James.

Even Sirius stopped his assault on his mother's portrait and wore a guilty expression. Remus, however, was frozen in panic.

Finally, Dumbledore spoke. "A word in the kitchen, now," he said in a level tone.

"We're in for it now," Sirius sing songed just as he used to do when they were kids and were called into the headmaster's office after an out of control prank.

"This is all _your_ fault!" Remus snapped at Sirius as always.

"Interesting," Lily said quietly.

"What?" James asked.

"Just an observation," Lily answered vaguely.

* * *

Once inside the kitchen, Dumbledore rounded on Remus and Sirius. "What the two of you did must be the most idiotic and reckless thing either one of you have ever done," he began. "Remus, I expected more of you and Sirius, I don't even know what to expect anymore. You have no idea what you both have caused by raising the dead, you have played with the very forces of nature and cannot even begin to comprehend the consequences of such an action," he ranted.

"I did it for Harry!" Sirius snapped, and Dumbledore rounded on him. "You know what he has been through! You sat there and listened to him as he rehashed the horror of being forced to witness Voldemort's return, of what he had been put through! You know what he has to face!" he shouted.

"And you truly believe that this was the best course of action?" Dumbledore questioned harshly.

"Yes I do," Sirius declared, staring his old headmaster in the eye, back straight. "Harry needs his parents. He should not have to face this war alone."

"And you think that is just cause to manipulate life and death?" Dumbledore demanded.

"Fate owes him," Sirius stated adamantly.

"I've always known you were reckless, Sirius, you have proven so time and time again. But I used to think that you were a very bright wizard, until now. Have you ever stopped to consider what happens next? Have you considered the price that now must be paid for your actions? How much of an adjustment this would mean for Lily and James who have been dead for fourteen years! Or how this may affect Harry?" Dumbledore lectured.

"I would rather say that Harry would be ecstatic to have his parents back, it's what he's dreamed of," Sirius stated.

"Harry has spent most of his life knowing that his parents were dead, Sirius. Imagine the pain he would suffer if he were to get to know them, love them, only to lose them again," Dumbledore pointed out.

At this point, Sirius did falter. "That won't happen," he denied.

"But it could happen. You have no idea what lies ahead of us at this point," Dumbledore insisted.

Remus decided to join in at this point. "We've been helping Lily and James adjust for the past three weeks and I think it is going well, considering the circumstances..."

This however turned out to be the wrong thing to say. Dumbledore seemed to explode. "Three weeks! When were you two planning on sharing this? Do you realize that you have just made Harry vulnerable to an attack for the past three weeks by not telling me the very minute it happened?" he yelled, advancing on them.

"But Harry has the protection placed upon him through Lily's sacrifice," Sirius protested.

"Which became invalid the minute you rose her from the dead. That protection only existed while she was no longer with us. You will have to go collect him immediately, Remus, before anything happens," Dumbledore told them. "And you are to wait at Number four privet drive for Alastor Moody before leaving."

Remus didn't say anything, he felt shamed and instead turned to walk out of the kitchen to do as he was asked. On his way out, he clamped Sirius on the shoulder for support as he was sure that his friend would bear the brunt of the lecture alone. He spotted Lily and James sitting in the parlor and paused, offering them a smile. "I'm off to collect Harry, is there anything you need while I'm out?" he offered.

"No, there's nothing," Lily told him.

Remus nodded and left.

* * *

Harry paced in the small confines of his room at Number Four Privet Drive. He had been confined to the Dursley's for several weeks without a word from anyone. With the pressing threat of Voldemort being out there, Harry had begun to feel anxious, expecting to be attacked at any given moment. He kept his wand on him at all times and slept clutching it firmly in his hand, jerking awake at the slightest noise and brandishing his wand, ready to defend himself.

He had written to everyone he trusted, asking for some kind of information about what was happening with Voldemort, but was met by silence. Breaking down, he wrote to Sirius, confident that Sirius would tell him what he needed to hear, but only became frustrated by Sirius' vague response and promptly balled up his letter and tossed it.

But the most eventful thing to have happen on Privet Drive occurred the morning after the new moon(after learning that Remus, one of his dad's best friends, was a werewolf, Harry had kept track of the full moon) three weeks ago. As his Aunt Petunia saw his Uncle Vernon off to work in the morning, Uncle Vernon just collapsed on his way to the car. Aunt Petunia was beside herself, screaming for help. But there would be no help, Vernon Dursley was dead before she could have reached him.

Harry had seen the entire thing from his bedroom window. He knew without a doubt that something magical had been involved. He could feel the crackling in the air as though something huge had just happened to shift the natural balance. Harry only knew that magic could cause such a shift and he could only guess that it had to do with Voldemort. But it had to have been something other than the killing curse, he knew what that looked like and what had happened to Vernon Dursley was not Voldemort's MO. So what magical force could have killed Vernon Dursley? What could Voldemort be doing that could cause the death of someone close, if not emotionally, to Harry to suddenly drop dead without having to be near him?

After that day, however, life at Privet Drive became all too strange without the looming presence of Uncle Vernon. It wasn't that Harry missed him, he held no feelings toward his uncle whatsoever. A part of him thought that this was what people like his uncle got when they thought of their own needs and treated others like garbage, but the bigger part of him had not wanted him to die. However Harry may or may not have felt, he never wished for Vernon to die. But a very small voice in the back of his mind told him that Vernon's death was somehow connected to him.

Ever since that day, Harry minded himself, preferring to keep to his room. The coroner's declared Vernon's death as a result of poor diet and lack of fitness, that his heart just gave out. But Harry knew the truth and he was not about to voice it to his aunt or to Dudley.

Today was the day of the funeral and Harry had elected to stay back. Aunt Petunia pursed her lips when he told her he would not go to the funeral. She was about to make a retort when Aunt Marge made it for her.

"You ungrateful little worm! After all Vernon has done for you and you dare to refuse to pay him any respect," she spluttered.

Harry was done being polite and he refused to take anymore of her abuse. "What has Vernon ever done for me? I think it's more like what he has done to me, locking me away in a cupboard for ten years? Slamming his fist into me if I asked a question? Or how about keeping me chained up behind a locked door and a bared window? You're lucky that I don't go running to the police detailing all the abuse you lot have thrown at me," he said, staring her down coldly.

Marge spluttered as her face turned purple in rage. "You dare, you little ingrate!" she raged.

"You don't scare me. I've faced more horrors than you can even begin to comprehend. You can't intimidate me, Marge. If anything, you should be careful not to threaten me," Harry warned her.

"Are you threatening me?" Marge demanded dangerously.

"Yeah, I am," Harry confirmed, fingering the pocket knife that Sirius gave him in his pocket. He couldn't use his wand to defend himself out of school, but he would defend himself if he had to.

"I'll teach you a lesson in manners, boy!" Marge raged as she lunged toward him, moving to grab his throat but Harry was quicker.

Pulling out his pocketknife, he held it at her throat. "You will keep your hands off of me," he told her firmly.

Surprisingly enough, Marge Dursley did just that and stepped away, her eyes trained on the pocketknife in his hand.

The Dursleys left for the funeral rather quickly after that incident and Harry took the time he had alone to raid the refrigerator when he noticed the lock on the back door turning. Would death eaters attack him during the day? He wondered and tightly gripped his wand as he moved to face the door. He relaxed when the door opened and a familiar figure appeared.

"Professor Lupin?" Harry questioned.

"I'm not your professor anymore, Harry, you can call me by my given name or if you prefer my nickname," Remus told him.

"Right, sorry," Harry said as he put his wand away. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you here?" he asked.

"I'm here to escort you to somewhere safe," Remus told him.

"Does Dumbledore know about this?" Harry asked.

"Of course, he told me to come right away," Remus answered.

"Why? What happened?" Harry demanded.

'It's...really complicated," Remus sighed.

"Try me," Harry prompted.

Remus sighed, evaluating him. "Is there somewhere we can sit? This is something you will need to sit down for."

"Yeah, sure," Harry said and motioned to the kitchen table. Before they took a seat he felt as though he should offer something. "Er...do you want...?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you," Remus said as they sat down.

"Does this have anything to do with Voldemort?" Harry asked immediately.

"No, thankfully. Voldemort has been quite. Actually this concerns you, Harry. I think that before we leave, I will have to prepare you," Remus told him.

"Prepare me for what exactly?" Harry asked as he took a biscuit from Dudley's biscuit jar.

"I'm not sure that you would want to be eating for this conversation," Remus hesitated.

Harry shrugged. "It's fine, I'm actually forbidden from eating these," he stated nonchalantly as he chewed on the biscuit in his hand.

"They forbid you to eat?" Remus questioned.

"Not exactly. I'm not allowed to have anything but the scraps," Harry told him coolly.

Remus stared at him intently. "What else goes on here?" he asked.

Harry shrugged. "Nothing of any real interest," he dismissed. "Actually, if you had come any sooner, you might have seen it where I had to pull this on uncle Vernon's sister," he said, showing Remus the pocketknife. "Sirius gave it to me for Christmas," he explained.

Remus eyed him. "And why, Harry, did you feel the need to do so?" he asked.

"It was either that or let her strangle me," Harry told him.

Remus gawked at him in alarm. "Why haven't you ever mentioned any of this?" he demanded.

"You never asked," Harry told him simply.

"Harry," Remus said, trying not to sound as though he were scalding him. "What your aunt and uncle have been doing is not okay. They shouldn't have been allowed to treat you this way and you should have said something to someone," he stated.

"Would people really have listened?" Harry stated flatly. "Anytime I tried to correct someone by telling them that they don't care, they just brushed it aside. And to be honest, it's been loads better since I started going to Hogwarts," he argued.

"That is not the point, Harry," Remus stated tiredly. Taking a deep breath, he looked around. "Where are your aunt and uncle, I want to have a word with them," he asked.

"They left for the funeral not that long ago," Harry informed him.

"What funeral?" Remus asked.

"Right, you don't know. Uncle Vernon died three weeks ago. He just dropped dead as he was leaving for work. The muggles say it was health related but I know that there was something magical behind it," Harry informed him.

"You think he was killed by a death eater?" Remus asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, there wasn't a spell, not even the killing curse," he answered.

"Are you sure?" Remus pressed.

"Positive. I saw it from my bedroom window. I would know if someone used a spell on him," Harry confirmed.

"Yes, I'm sure you would," Remus agreed.

"You were going to tell me something?" Harry prompted, changing the subject.

Remus marvelled at Harry's ability to jump away from the subject at hand.

"You're not upset over your uncle's passing?" Remus asked.

"Not really. I mean, I didn't want him to die or anything, but I'm not all that upset over the fact that he died. It's not like we were close or anything," Harry answered. "Now tell me why you came here to get me so we can leave before they come back. I want to leave a nice mess for Aunt Petunia to clean up."

"Sirius has too much influence over you," Remus said, shaking his head. "Alright. What I am about to tell you will come as a bit of a shock," he began.

"Whatever it is, I can handle it," Harry told him.

"Oh I don't doubt what you can handle it," Remus stalled. He took a deep breath as he collected his thoughts. "Sirius did something three weeks ago that he might not have..."

"He didn't get caught, did he?" Harry asked worriedly.

"No, nothing like that," Remus assured him.

"Then what is it?" Harry pressed.

There really was no beating around the bush here. "Earlier last month, he found a spellbook among his mother's possessions that detailed certain spells and magic. Very powerful stuff, very dangerous stuff. Most of which, no sane wizard would even dare to use," he explained.

"Okay, so what did he do with it?" Harry asked.

"I see you've quickly assessed the situation," Remus noted.

Harry shrugged "It's Sirius," he stated as though that explained it, which oddly, it did. "And you're stalling," he sussed out.

Remus sighed. "Alright, he did use it. And he was thinking of you at the time..."

"Go on.." Harry prompted when Remus paused.

"Harry," Remus said, "Sirius used this book to raise your parents back from the grave," he said, decided to use the band aid effect.

Harry sat there and stared at him, trying to decide if he was telling the truth. "Have you been drinking?" he finally said.

"What?" Remus asked, not expecting that response.

"It's either that or you've gone completely mental," Harry argued.

"Harry, I know this is a lot to take in..." Remus started.

"No, actually its not, really," Harry said and stood up. "Dumbledore said that no spell existed that could do that," he said.

"He told you that for good reason. Harry these spells are dangerous and they can go wrong, very very wrong," Remus told him.

"So, what you're telling me is that my parents, who have been dead for fourteen years, are suddenly alive, but there is something wrong with them?" Harry demanded, beginning to get rather angry.

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Sirius and I have been with them every minute for the past three weeks and they seem perfectly fine, considering the circumstances. And they want to see you," Remus said, adding the last part to hopefully calm Harry down.

"Three weeks? They've been alive for three weeks and no one has told me?" Harry demanded hotly.

"We wanted to make sure that they were alright before you saw them," Remus explained.

"So what happens now, then?" Harry demanded evenly.

Remus sighed. "As a consequence of Sirius's actions, the protection that Lily gave you when she died is no longer in effect. As a result, you're no longer safe while you remain here. Which is why I'm here, so that I can escort you to someplace safe and explain to you about what has happened," he told him.

Harry nodded. "I need to pack," he said.

"Do you need any help?" Remus offered.

Harry shook his head. "No, I can manage," he said as he made his way upstairs, leaving Remus alone.

Remus watched him go and then stood up. After hearing about Harry's treatment while in this house, he decided to do a little inspecting in order to get a full idea of what was really going on. It took him no time to find the cupboard that once served as Harry's bedroom. He made his way upstairs to find Harry closing his trunk and stuffing some things into his knapsack. The door was open so he walked in. He instantly took note of the bars on the window and the cat flap on the door followed by how the door locked from the outside with chains and deadbolts. Remus was outraged by what he had discovered today and would waste no time in sharing it with those closest to himself and Harry. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"How are we getting to, wherever we're going?" Harry asked.

"Mrs. Figg will drive us," Remus answered him.

Harry gave him a sharp look. "Why would she drive us?" he asked.

"Because she is an ally," Remus told him. "She's a squib," he explained to the puzzled expression on Harry's face.

"That explains the cats, I think," Harry stated.

Remus nodded and checked his watch. "Mad-Eye should be here at any minute to escort us. So let's go downstairs and wait. Are you sure that you have everything?" Remus answered.

"I don't own anything that can't fit in my trunk or rucksack," Harry said.

Remus nodded. "You grab Hedwig and your rucksack, I'll handle your trunk," he said.


	6. The Awkward Family Reunion

**A/N**: _And so the moment some of you have waited for has arrived. I hope it was well worth the wait._

* * *

It had been a few hours since Remus had left to collect Harry. Dumbledore had finished with lecturing Sirius and left, leaving Sirius alone with Lily and James.

"What is taking so bloody long?" Sirius grumbled as he stared at the clock in the parlor.

"How do you think Harry would react when he sees us?" Lily asked.

"I honestly have no idea," Sirius admitted. "He may not believe Remus until he sees you," he answered. His brows knitted together with thought. "Although, you might want to prepare for the event should he decide to attack you. Never mind magic, he has a rather nasty right hook. Not to mention that he's right touchy when you both are concerned, he may think your imposters and in that case, put up your defenses," he said.

"But would he recognize us?" James asked.

"Oh, don't even doubt that. He has a bunch of pictures of the two of you. In fact, he keeps one in a frame beside his bed every night," Sirius assured them. "Don't ever doubt that you've been far from Harry's mind for a minute."

A minute later the front door opened and it sounded as though two people had walked in, one lagging a heavy trunk behind them. "You can just leave you're trunk here, Harry," Remus's voice said.

"I'd rather start unpacking if you don't mind," a younger male voice replied.

"Very well. Your room is the first door on the left, third landing," Remus instructed.

The sound of a trunk being dragged upstairs and that of an owl could be heard as Remus joined his friends in the parlor.

"Well? How did it go?" Sirius questioned.

"Not as well as we had hoped, I'm afraid," Remus told them. "He resisted the idea at first, but he'll come around. However, there is a more important matter that I need to address before he comes back downstairs," he informed them.

"What happened?" Sirius asked, alert.

"I was rather disturbed by something that Harry had said to me while I was there," Remus began. "Oddly it started with an offhand comment he made as he nicked some food and offered some to me. He said he was forbidden from eating it and when I questioned this, he amended that it didn't extend to the scraps," he started.

"They starved him, I already knew that when I saw how skinny he was after I escaped," Sirius said as if this were obvious. "He sent out help letters last year, asking us all to send him some food because that cousin of his was being forced to go on a diet," he explained.

"They starved him?!" Lily gasped, outraged.

"I'm afraid that it goes far deeper than that," Remus stated gravely.

"How so?" James asked.

"Sirius, you gave him a pocket knife for Christmas?" Remus asked.

"I did, it can unlock any lock," Sirius confirmed.

"Well, I was just told that he had used it to defend himself against Vernon Dursley's sister because she had moved to strangle him just prior to my arrival," Remus informed him. He had to silence Sirius' outraged response by holding up his hand before continuing. "He remains tight lipped about anything else when I questioned him further. However, as he was packing I did an inspection of the house. I've found evidence that he used to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs and his room serves as a prison cell. There were bars on the window and the door locked from the outside. There was also a cat flap in the door where small amounts of food and drink might have been slipped through," Remus disclosed. He leaned forward. "What disturbs me the most is how casually he speaks about it, if he does at all. It's like it doesn't affect him. I cannot fathom what Dumbledore was thinking in placing Harry in their care," he said.

Their conversation was halted when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs and Harry appeared in the doorway, looking straight at Remus, ignoring who else was in the room. "I want to let Hedwig outside to hunt, is that okay? Or will it interfere with the fidelius charm?" he asked.

"It's shouldn't do any harm, so long as she is careful and stays local," Remus answered.

Harry turned to go back upstairs when Remus called him back in. "Ah, Harry, don't you want to say hello to someone?"

"Hello, Sirius," Harry stated, acting as though he had just noticed Sirius, but the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes said that he was clearly upset with his godfather. Without another word, he turned and left the room.

Sirius turned to Remus. "I get the feeling that he's upset with me," he stated.

"A bit," Remus agreed.

"A bit?" Sirius drawled. "If his eyes were an Avada Kedavra, I'd be dead right now," he stated.

"Don't be so dramatic, Sirius," Remus responded.

"I don't think Harry has ever been this mad at me," Sirius complained.

"Are you forgetting when he attacked you?" Remus asked.

"That was different, he didn't know the truth then," Sirius dismissed.

Neither one of them noticed when Lily and James had left the room.

* * *

Harry found the room that Remus had described, noticing the two twin beds in the room. He also noticed the dark decor and the snake doorknobs. The room he was in seemed to have not seen an occupant in decades. He wondered why Sirius' house was so dark. Remus had briefly explained to him that Sirius had inherited this house from his parents and that Sirius' family wasn't the nicest of wizards. Harry had a few guesses as to what kind of family the Blacks were.

Not wanting to face the people downstairs, Harry busied himself with unpacking, stacking his schoolbooks on a desk, stuffing clothes into a dresser and leaning his firebolt against the dresser. He had posted his calendar on the wall where he counted the days until he returned to Hogwarts. He also put up his Gryffindor paraphernalia on the walls as well. He had let Hedwig out to hunt and was putting up a Gryffindor banner when there was a knock on the open door. Harry briefly turned, expecting Remus or Sirius to be standing there. Instead, there stood two people who shouldn't be there. Remus had prepared him, but Harry froze when he saw them close up.

Harry wasn't the only one frozen where he stood. It seemed like much time passed as the three of them stood in silence, Harry looking at Lily and James while Lily and James looked at him. They were all at a loss as to what to say. Harry had imagined this meeting for as long as he could remember. No matter which scenario he came up with in his mind, he was ill prepared for the reality. For Lily and James, they had no clue as to what they should say to Harry; who, in their minds eye was still a baby, yet stood before them as a teenager.

Harry was reminded of the time he had discovered the Mirror of Erised during the Christmas holidays in his first year. To the first time he had been given a glimpse of his parents. He automatically knew who they were then and briefly felt elation at the thought that they stood beside him. His elation had only been replaced by immense loneliness when he realized that their being there was merely a trick of the mirror. When Remus had told him of their return, Harry didn't want to believe it. He didn't dare hope that it was real, but as he stood there staring at them, he knew. He knew without a doubt that it was really his parents standing there. The only thing was that he had no idea what to say, everything seemed so insignificant. He had no memory of them and lived his entire childhood without any true parental figures that he didn't know how to proceed. Should he go over to them and hug them?

Instead he settled on a common icebreaker. "Hello." It was possibly the least meaningful thing to say at the time, but all other words had escaped him. Luckily, he wasn't the only one to feel this way.

James ran a hand through the back of his hair, glanced at his wife and uttered the awkward, "Hello."

More silence followed until Lily spoke. "May we come in?" she asked.

No one had ever asked that question so it took a few minutes to register what she was asking. It dawned on him that he was actually in his own room, his own space and someone was actually asking permission to enter it. The entire concept was just too alien for him. He didn't let that fact show, instead, he mentally shook himself. "Er...yeah. Come in," he finally said. He stood there between the two beds and the dresser as he watched them enter. His eyes automatically followed his mother as she walked towards him.

Lily tentatively reached out towards Harry, almost afraid that if she touched him then he would disappear. She gently cupped his face in her hands, her fingers brushing wasps of his hair. Which was so much like James' hair, only Harry's seemed in bad need of a haircut as though he hasn't had one in a long time. She smiled as she searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. "You've grown so much," she said softly, both sad that she wasn't there to see it and happy that he had survived that night to grow up.

Harry couldn't speak. His eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand here like this and look at her forever, and that would be enough. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, he said the first thing that came to him, "I haven't noticed."

Lily smiled even further and brushed the fringe from his forehead, seeing for the first time the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Sirius had told them about the scar and the sight of it both made her uncomfortable and worried at the same time. She touched the tip of her forefinger to it softly. "I used to kiss your forehead here every night when I put you to bed," she told him.

Harry let the words sink in and filtered them away for another time.

"You're in Gryffindor," James said as he glanced at the memorabilia on the walls. "There wasn't a Potter who wasn't in Gryffindor that wasn't one by marriage."

"I've heard that houses run through families," Harry said, the moment between he and Lily having passed.

"Generally, it does. But there have been cases where the rule is null in void. It mostly depends on the individual. Look at Sirius..."

"What about me?" Sirius asked, appearing in the doorway.

"The subject of Hogwarts houses and families came up," Harry said, not looking at his godfather or anyone else for that matter.

"Ah," Sirius said. "Well as you can see, I'm the Gryffindor in a long line of foul Slytherins, much to my mother's horror and shame," he said. "Moony is going to get something for supper, any requests?" he asked, coming to the excuse he had for coming up here.

Harry shrugged. "I don't care," he said.

Sirius eyed his godson. "I told Remus to pick up some treacle tart, I know that it's your favorite, Harry," he said.

Harry moved to continue to unpack, throwing some socks into a drawer. He didn't respond to Sirius.

Sirius frowned and met James' gaze head on. Lily was too busy looking at Harry, but standing off to the side. Sirius took note of how much more messy James' hair was and he knew that his friend's nervous habit had shown itself. "Moony wanted to finish that conversation from earlier before he left," he said, offering his friends a way out of the awkwardness. He nodded towards Harry as if to say: _I've got this_.

James took a moment before nodding, getting Lily's attention who met Sirius' eye, who gestured to Harry, and she understood. Sirius would talk to Harry to gauge his reaction to seeing them and to see what he was feeling. After all, Sirius knew Harry better than Lily and James.

Once they were alone, Sirius settled himself on one of the beds, leaning against the headboard, his legs stretched out before him on the faded emerald velvetine bedspread and his arms crossed behind his head. "I should send someone to get new bedding and such for here," he noted. He watched as Harry neatly piled his schoolbooks on the desk and arranged his rolls of parchment, inkwells and quills along the surface of the desk. "I get the feeling that you're mad at me," he said.

"You think?" Harry said sarcastically as he threw another sock in the open drawer.

"So lets talk about it," Sirius said.

"How come you didn't tell me?" Harry asked, finally turning to Sirius.

Sirius didn't need to ask to know what Harry meant. "You know why," he patiently said.

"You could have hinted at it in your letter," Harry argued.

"Would you have believed me?" Sirius asked.

Harry thought about it for a minute before replying. "No, I wouldn't have," he finally answered.

"I don't blame you. If I wasn't there myself then I wouldn't either," Sirius said.

Harry sat down on the opposite bed. "It's really them, then, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.

"It's really them," Sirius confirmed. "You have what you've always wanted, you know. Are you happy?" he asked.

"I don't know yet," Harry answered.

* * *

Dinner was served in the kitchen as Sirius stated that it was the warmest place in the house. Harry had the distinct impression that he didn't mean it in the temperature sense. Harry took a seat next to Sirius as Remus unpacked the takeout. Lily and James took seats across from Harry and Sirius while Remus took the end seat. They exchanged pleasant chit chat as they ate with Lily and James asking Harry about his time at school and later they idly chatted about light subjects until finally they all pushed their plates away when they finished eating.

Sirius sent the dishes over to the sink where they began washing themselves before he turned to Harry in all seriousness. "Okay, Harry: what do you want to know?" he asked.

Harry took a deep breath and asked the question that he had been obsessed with since he left Hogwarts. "Where's Voldemort?" he asked looking around. "What's he doing? I've tried to watch the Muggle news, and I haven't seen anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."

"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," Sirius answered. "Not as far as we know, anyway: and we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do, anyway," Remus said.

"How come he's stopped killing people then?' Harry asked, "I know that he's murdered more than once in the last year alone."

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Sirius answered. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or rather, you messed it tip for him," Remus said with a satisfied smile.

"How?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"Because you weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius told him pointedly. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness," he explained

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Remus said, "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"And how has that helped exactly?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" James said incredulously. "Dumbledore is the only one that Voldemort ever feared. Haven't you ever heard that before?"

Sirius threw his friend a sharp look before responding to Harry's question. "Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned."

"And what is the Order of the Phoenix?" Harry asked.

"The Order of the Phoenix is a secret organization dedicated to fighting Voldemort and his followers," Lily explained patiently.

Harry looked directly at Sirius. "Is this the old crowd that Dumbledore spoke of when he sent you to alert them?" he asked.

Sirius nodded, "Yes."

"So, what's the Order been doing?" Harry asked, looking around at them all.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," Sirius explained.

"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.

James was impressed by the way Harry kept firing off questions. "You're a very shrewd one with the questions aren't you," he said.

Harry looked at him. "I guess," he said.

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea of what Voldemort is after," Remus answered Harry's question, "And Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?" Harry pressed.

"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," Sirius began. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?" Harry deducted.

"We're doing our best," Remus admitted.

"How?" Harry wanted to know.

"Well, the main thing is to first try and convince as many people as possible that Voldemort really has returned, to put them on their guard," James answered as though this was obvious.

"It's proving tricky, though," Sirius added in.

"Why?" Harry pressed.

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said Remus said simply and handed Harry a copy of the daily prophet where the front page was a picture of him with the headline: THE BOY WHO LIED.

"He's been attacking Dumbledore, as well. Fudge is using all of his powers, including his influence at the Daily Prophet, to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned," Sirius continued. He shifted in his seat so that he was looking directly at Harry. "You saw Cornelius Fudge after Voldemort came back in the hospital wing, Harry. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

"But why?" said Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore -"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Remus said with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," Sirius continued as though he found the situation quite funny.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry incredulously as though it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"With good reason, I'd be scared of him too if I were on the opposite side of the war. Dumbledore may seem kindly and harmless but no one in their right mind would willingly face him a duel," Sirius told him.

"The Minister thinks Dumbledore is after his job. Frightened of what he's up to, thinks he is stirring up trouble to discredit Fudge so he could overthrow him. He has convinced himself that Dumbledore wants to be minister of magic," Remus said.

"But that's insane! No one in their right mind would believe that Dumbledore…" Harry burst out.

"Exactly the point!" Remus said emphasizing it by pointing a finger in the air. "Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear. Now fear makes people do terrible things, Harry. Now, the last time Voldemort gained power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. Now he's returned, and I'm afraid the Minister will do almost anything to avoid facing the terrifying truth. Now anyone in their right mind would know that Dumbledore never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job," he explained. "Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is and a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," he continued, "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble."

"How can he think that?" Harry angrily said. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up -that I'd make it all up?"

"Because accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," Sirius told him bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."

"You see the problem," Remus said. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."

"But you're telling people, aren't you?" Harry wanted to know, "You're letting people know he's back?"

They all smiled humorlessly. "Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" Sirius told him restlessly.

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," Remus added in, "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."

"And since up until three weeks ago, your father and I have been, well...dead, we can't exactly go out there and start spreading the word now can we," Lily told him.

"Arthur Weasley and other members of the Order who work within the ministry would lose their jobs if they started shooting their mouths off," Sirius continued.

"It's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them. He had many of them the last time," James explained.

"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," Sirius said, "My cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, she's an auror for one and she's in her early twenties so she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage. Another auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, has been a real asset too; he's in charge of tracking me down so he's been feeding the Ministry information that I'm in Tibet."

"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back -" Harry began restlessly.

"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" James said in exasperation. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble then?"

"What d'you mean? What trouble?" Harry asked.

"They're trying to discredit him," Lily told him patiently. "It was in the Daily Prophet last week, do you get it?" Harry shook his head so she continued. "They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot - that's the Wizard High Court - and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too," she explained.

"But Dumbledore is taking it in stride, he says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," James said grinning.

"It's no laughing matter," Lily said sternly as she looked at her husband.

"I think it's very chipper of him considering the situation," James countered as he met his wife's stern gaze head on.

"If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up. While Voldemort knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out of the way - well, Voldemort will have a clear field." Lily argued.

"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" Harry asked desperately.

"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," Sirius told him calmly. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well practiced at operating in secret. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in. He's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on those for the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly. "Besides trying to kill me that is." He thought he saw Sirius, Remus and his parents exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius answered.

"Stuff he can only get by stealth," Sirius said slowly. When Harry continued to look puzzled, he said, "Something he didn't have last time. When he was powerful before."

"Sirius..." James warned, his eyes on Harry.

Sirius said no more, knowing that it was no longer his place to continue. He did meet Harry's questioning look, silently conveying that there was much more.

Harry refused to let the subject drop. "You mean, like a weapon?" he deduced from the look on Sirius' face. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra -?"

The table grew very quiet as James shot Sirius a look that clearly meant that he wasn't to say a word and Remus plastered a blank expression on his face.

Lily however reacted the strongest, suddenly furious, as she stood up, walked around the table and put her arms around Harry protectively. "No! That's enough. He's just a boy! You say much more and you might as well induct him into the Order straightaway," she said fiercely.

Harry shoved away from her protective embrace and looked around the table determinedly. "Good! I want to join. If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight!" he announced.

There was a collective amount of firm "NO," from all four adults.

"Why not?" Harry said hotly.

"The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," James told him. "Wizards who have left school," he added, "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea. I believe Lily is right, we've said enough."

Sirius half-shrugged but did not argue, he did however meet Harry's eyes in silent communication.

"I think it may be time for you to go to bed," Lily said looking directly at Harry.

Harry ignored her and jumped on what James said. "It's not like I haven't been in dangerous situations before," he said and stood up. "Four years ago Voldemort tried to get the sorcerers stone so he could come back. Dumbledore hid it in Hogwarts and Voldemort possessed one of the professors to try and get it. The only reason that Voldemort didn't get it is because I got to it first after no one believed me when I told them that someone was trying to steal it. Three years ago Lucius Malfoy gave Ginny Weasley Voldemort's old school diary which he used to possess her into opening the Chamber of Secrets and release the basilisk into the school. Ginny would have died if Ron and I didn't force Lockhart to go down there with us to rescue her. I nearly died fighting the basilisk and if it wasn't for Fawks arriving when he did I would have! Last year I had to participate in the Triwizard Tournament because Barty Crouch Jr entered my name in the Goblet of Fire as a means to trap me in that graveyard so Wormtail could help Voldemort return by taking my blood.." he listed off. "I don't know why Voldemort wants to kill me but he obviously wants me dead and he won't stop trying until I am dead. I'm not going to just sit back and let whatever happens happen when I can be actually doing something," he told them stubbornly.

"No one is denying that you are capable of fighting, Harry," Remus said calmly.

"If we let you join the order then we would be deliberately putting you in more danger than you already are in. None of us are willing to take that risk," Sirius told him reasonably. "We want you to be safe."

"How is it safe for me to be some kind of sitting duck until Voldemort decides to attack?" Harry argued. "If I was actually doing..."

"No!" James snapped. "You're not joining the order and that is final."

Harry looked around at them with a mutinous expression. "If Voldemort is just laying low then it won't be for long. He's going to make a move sooner or later and when he does, I'm going to fight," he told them stubbornly.

"I think we should all just drop the subject for the night and sleep on it. We can return to this at a time when we all have a clear head," Remus intervened before things got out of hand even further.

"Right, it's late, so bed," James agreed and looked at Harry.

Harry, feeling mutinous, stared back. "I'm not tired," he said stubbornly.

Sirius caught Harry's eye and offered him subtle wink. "I wouldn't argue with marching orders," he said.

Harry got the hint before sending a glare around the table before he stood up to leave. He paused at the top of the stairs and looked down to see that Lily was watching him before he continued onto his room. Once there, he opened his trunk and pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself.

He quietly made his way back down to the kitchen to find the door had been closed and he could hear voices. His godfather's voice was loud and clear.

"Harry has a right to know!" he argued.

"It's not your place to decide that!"

"Sirius has a point, James."

"I don't care if he does, Remus."

"He's just a child, he shouldn't have to face this bordon."

"Harry stopped being a child long ago, Lily."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"What Sirius is trying to say is that Harry has faced much..."

"I think my point is loud and clear, Remus."

"And it's not your decision, not anymore!"

"And don't you think Harry deserves to know why Voldemort has targeted him?"

"When we heard about the prophecy, we swore to keep it secret."

Harry back away and fell against the wall with a thud. _Prophecy_? Harry stared at the door in shock, keeping himself as still as possible as the door was opened and Remus poked his head out, his eyes fell on the spot where Harry was pressed against the wall, invisible. Turning back into the room, he said, "It's just Kreacher," he said. "Nonetheless, I think that we should conclude this argument for a later time."

"You'll see that I'm right sooner or later," Sirius said to Lily and James.

The door closed again and Harry could hear the scraping sounds of dishes being put away. With his mind reeling, Harry made his way back upstairs where he tore off the cloak and stuffed it back into his trunk and quickly changed for bed. Falling into bed, his mind went wild with thought about prophecies and what it could possibly connect to the argument downstairs. He instantly thought of Professor Trelawney's prediction at the end of his third year and how it came true. But what kind of prophecy did his parents swear to keep secret?

* * *

Lily and James went to bed that night around eleven and laid in silence for a while before Lily decided to break the silence. "Are you asleep?" she asked.

"No," James answered.

"He's all grown up," Lily said.

"Yeah," James agreed.

"Seeing him, hearing him speak, it makes everything all too real," Lily said quietly.

James rolled over to face her. "I know what you mean. I used to imagine what he would be like at this age, how he would have turned out," he said.

"He doesn't seem any happier than we are," Lily observed. "I don't want to think about what could do that to him."

"I know, I don't want to think about it either. We should just put it from our minds I think," he told her.

"Do you think that we should at least pretend that everything is okay?" she asked.

"Do you think that would be best?" he asked.

"I don't want to add to his plate that we're not okay," Lily told him.

James nodded. "Then from this moment we should act like nothing has happened, pretend that we're happy to be back. Who knows, maybe one day we'll convince ourselves as well," he said.

"I hope it works,' Lily said quietly.

* * *

Dumbledore sat behind his desk, thinking over the new developments of the day and their complications. He realized that he had known that something like this would happen. It didn't take too much genius to figure out what Sybil's premonition meant on a basic level but the rest needed to be figured out and as soon as possible.

The moment that Sirius had shown him that book, Dumbledore knew what he would do with it. Dumbledore understood the risks to such magic and had tried to caution Sirius from acting on what he had found. Alas, this was Sirius Black and Dumbledore had hoped that this once that Sirius would listen to reason. Now, however, it was done and Dumbledore had to find a way to deal with whatever consequences would arise.

Dumbledore tapped his wand to the pensieve on his desk and the image of Sybil Trelawney appeared and she uttered the same words that occupied Dumbledore's thoughts since he had heard them.

"THEY WILL RISE AGAIN. AS THE NEW MOON RISES IN THE SIXTH MONTH, THE WILLINGLY SLAUGHTERED AT THE HANDS OF THE DARK LORD WILL RETURN TO THE ONE WHO NEEDS THEM. THEY WILL RISE AGAIN AND THEIR POWER WILL BE UNMATCHED. THEY WILL RISE WITH THE POWER THE DARK LORD CANNOT TOUCH OR CONCEIVE AND THE DARK LORD WILL FALTER AT THEIR HANDS."

Dumbledore knew without a doubt who this prophecy spoke about, but he also knew that prophecies were self fulfilling. The only way that a prophecy can be fulfilled is if the subject or subjects chose to act on the prophecy in question.

So now begs the question: what to do now that the prophecy has been activated by Sirius raising Lily and James Potter from the grave? Dumbledore would have to inform them of the prophecy, there was no other way. But first, he must try to understand it more. The power that the Dark Lord cannot touch or conceive, what was that? Love? Dumbledore was not completely certain. But the Dark Lord will falter at their hands. Does this cancel out the prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort or is this not as literal as it seems?

Dumbledore was not yet certain of where to go from here and he would need to tread carefully for now until more is revealed. He would inform Lily and James of the prophecy once Harry was safely on the train to Hogwarts. But now, he must prepare his staff for Dolores Umbridge's arrival. Dumbledore was certain that she would prove to be problematic to Hogwarts: both to his staff and his students. The heads of houses must take care to manage their students more for the student's care. Dumbledore was well aware of Dolores Umbridge's reputation and personality. The Minister could not have used a more venomous snake for his agent at Hogwarts.


End file.
